Alexander Ziskind has been creating some very good video tutorials on NativeScript. A recent video I found interesting, demonstrates a step by step conversion of our stock NativeScript (javascript based) Hello World application into a TypeScript application.
As you probably know, TypeScript is a typed superset of Javascript that compiles down to plain old Javascript. This means you get the power and availability of Javascript, while using a stronger typed development experience. This is especially appealing for those coming to Javascript development from an Object Oriented background. If your software development experiences are largely based on strongly typed languages, developing in pure Javascript can seem a little loosey goosey.
TypeScript gives you the same productivity that you get from Java/C#/etc development environments like Intellisense, statement completion, and navigation, but with core JavaScript. Also, TypeScript looks like regular Javascript with a very thin veneer of annotations. After you watch the video, you’ll not only see how easy it is to use TypeScript, but more importantly, you’ll see first hand some of the benefits.
NativeScript easily supports TypeScript. In fact, the core of NativeScript is developed using TypeScript. The team feels the strongly typed environment helps to move error catching to a compile time event, rather than slipping in as a run time event. In the end, less bugs make it to production and that is a Good Thingtm. Also, our development teams use modern features like async/await and other ES7-level goodies without having to wait for ES7 platforms to mature.
If you are interested in understanding the differences in Javascript and TypeScript and would like to learn more, watch this video by Alex: "Hello World native iOS mobile app using TypeScript and NativeScript".
For those who like to follow along closely, Alex also wrote a very detailed step by step companion guide to "Hello World native iOS mobile app using TypeScript and NativeScript" for those that prefer to read, rather than watch videos.