Interest In Coding and Now Learning TypeScript
23 Jan 2025
Before learning TypeScript, my programming experience was primarily with JavaScript and C. I attended my first real programming class two years ago in ICS 111, where I was introduced to coding. The first couple of weeks were surprisingly fun, and it was nothing like I had expected.
Despite my love for technology—especially Apple, my favorite company—I never considered majoring in Computer Science during my early high school years… until my mind changed in the summer of 2022 when I joined the GirlsWhoCode Summer Immersion Program. Through that experience with my fellow friends, I discovered how programming can be used to build real-world applications, which led me to become interested in learning more.
Fast forward to today, I have worked with both JavaScript and C, which gave me experience with two quite different languages. JavaScript felt flexible but sometimes unpredictable (which I seem to like better), while C taught me about strict typing and memory management. Although C really impressed me in terms of performance and efficiency, the attention to detail with the language, its complexity and less friendliness, made C less forgiving. Now this semester has come around where I am learning about TypeScript, which I feel is like a blend of both worlds.
How TypeScript Feels Like
TypeScript to me falls right between the two languages, JavaScript and C. It keeps the simplicity and dynamism of JavaScript but then it adds that aspect of type safety and structure that C has. The thing that gets me over and over again in JavaScript is the unexpected errors because of implicit type conversions or the undefined values in which it makes debugging one of the worst tasks that I am forced to do. But there comes that new language that I learned—TypeScript—where it solves this by making my code predictable and maintainable, thanks to the explicit types.
This brings me to what I like most about TypeScript: static typing. Due to the fact that it checks types before executing them, it helps me catch errors early while I am creating and structuring my code, so I can spend more time on figuring out how to make my code more efficient and better.
The WODS
To be honest, I didn’t expect the WODs to be this stressful, especially since we’re encouraged to use online resources and AI to help us solve the problems. But when I tried my first one, I quickly realized how important it is to pay attention to small details. AI tools like ChatGPT can be helpful, but they sometimes miss key steps in the instructions, which means I have to double-check everything. That said, after going through a few practice WODs, I actually started to enjoy the challenge—at least a little! What makes it exciting is the way it pushes me to test my coding skills. I find myself not just relying on AI, but also critically analyzing what it gets right and where it makes mistakes. In those moments, I feel like I’m improving, because I’m the one catching the errors and figuring out how to fix them. And plus by doing these practice WODS, I believe it is helping me prepare for the real WODS too!
New Way of Learning
This way of learning where we teach ourselves using resources that we are provided is a whole new style of learning for me. I was first really worried but turns out, I really like my professor as well and he seems like someone I can go ask for help immediately if I need any clarifications. What makes this learning style even better is that it gives me more hands-on experience. Instead of just following instructions, I get to explore programming concepts at my own pace and from my own perspective, which makes learning feel more natural and rewarding.
Overall
So far, learning TypeScript has been quite interesting, just as how I felt when I first was introduced to JavaScript and C. Combining Javascript’s flexibility and C’s type safety to achieve a more efficient way of coding. Reducing the number of bugs and making management of the codebases easier is sure something that I like about this new language.
As for this new style of class, I think I will be enjoying it as the semester goes by and I honestly can’t wait for more projects to come!
This essay was reviewed using AI(ChatGPT) for grammar checking to ensure and correctness and improve readability.