The upgrade of the React type definitions to support React 18 involved some significant breaking changes. This post digs into that and examines what the upgrade path looks like.
This post is a a little different from most that sit on my site. It's the story of the Definitely Typed project, of which I was an early member. It had a seismic impact on the development of TypeScript. When exchanging messages with Andrew Branch (member of the TypeScipt team), I realised it was an untold story, and perhaps I should tell it, before I forget! So I did, and this is it.
I named it "Definitely Typed: The Movie" as the name entertained me. Little did I know, that a few years later, a documentary would be made about TypeScript, and I'd be in it; in part thanks to writing this history. You can see more about that here.
For now, back to Definitely Typed...
A long time ago (well, 2012) in a galaxy far, far away (okay; Plovdiv, Bulgaria)....
I did ponder calling this post "how to enable a good TypeScript developer experience for npm modules that aren't written in TypeScript"... Not exactly pithy though.
This a tale of things that are and things that aren't. It's a tale of semantic versioning, the lack thereof and heartbreak. It's a story of terror and failing builds. But it has a bittersweet ending wherein our heroes learn a lesson and understand the need for compromise. We all come out better and wiser people. Hopefully there's something for everybody; let's start with an exciting opener and see where it goes...
A funny thing happened on the way to the registry the other day. Something changed in an npm package I was using and confusion arose. You can read my unfiltered confusion here but here's the slightly clearer explanation.
As part of the known breaking changes between 0.9 and 0.9.1 there was this subtle but significant switch: