The Symfony Finland blog has posted a practical introduction to Typescript for PHP developers. TypeScript is a free and open-source programming language developed and maintained by Microsoft. It is a strict superset of JavaScript, and adds optional static typing and class-based object-oriented programming to the language.

A greenfield project might be a good way to try a technology, if the scope is limited and risk in general is low. For many kicking off a new project or undertaking a major rewrite is not an option, but you can still evolve and apply good ideas and fresh concepts in your work. The value of legacy in web development is understated.

This is an area I've found TypeScript to be very useful for and I think many developers can benefit from taking a closer look at it. TypeScript compiles down to JavaScript & can be adopted gradually, chances are you'll have plenty of code you can use it on.

They then cover five advantages about TypeScript that can help make adoption in your applications easier:

• Low overhead in getting started
• Great tooling for your favourite editor
• Familiar syntax for async programming
• Type Definition files
• Stability and adoption

For each section there's a brief summary of the point and, where applicable, a quick code example or screencast animation showing it in action.