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What Anders Hejlsberg thinks about TypeScript

@anders-hejlsberg · 26 positions · 0 changes of mind

Danish software engineer and Microsoft technical fellow, creator of Turbo Pascal and Delphi and lead architect of C# and TypeScript.

Anders Hejlsberg did not write this page.

We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.

6 dated positions, 2026, in their own words. Our reading of what Anders Hejlsberg has said — not written or endorsed by them.

  1. Our readingA proprietary language licensed from Microsoft had zero chance in the JavaScript ecosystem: TypeScript had to be open source or nobody would come.

    Their wordsAnd we we full well knew that there was absolutely zero chance that we would appeal to the JavaScript ecosystem with a proprietary programming language licensed from Microsoft. No. No one was going to come. It had to be open source. There was just no two ways about it, right?

    ↗TypeScript, C# and Turbo Pascal with Anders Hejlsbergyoutube.com 13th of 26 in this recording

    open sourceJavaScriptMicrosoft

    Interesting

  3. Our readingPeople adopted TypeScript for the tooling, not the types: an erasable type system is worth having because of the productivity the tooling built on it delivers.

    Their wordsAnd the reason they came, I think, is absolutely because of the the better tooling. And I think we were totally right there that like adding a an erasable type system and then using that to enable great tooling is really where the pro where the programmer productivity boost is realized.

    ↗TypeScript, C# and Turbo Pascal with Anders Hejlsbergyoutube.com 15th of 26 in this recording

    Interesting

  5. Our readingWhat makes TypeScript unlike almost every other language is gradual typing: you can have types, but you do not have to.

    Their wordsThe thing that makes it interesting, I think, and and unlike pretty much any other programming language is the gradual typing. This This notion that you can have types, but you don't have to have types.

    ↗TypeScript, C# and Turbo Pascal with Anders Hejlsbergyoutube.com 17th of 26 in this recording

    Interesting

  7. Our readingBecause its types are erased before the program runs, TypeScript can afford not to be sound: checking 99% beats the 0% JavaScript checked, and buys features a sound language cannot offer.

    Their wordsSo, if we're checking 99% instead of 100%, well, heck, that's better than the 0% that JavaScript checked, right? And it gives you like language features that no other languages can provide because they can't get to 100%.

    ↗TypeScript, C# and Turbo Pascal with Anders Hejlsbergyoutube.com 18th of 26 in this recording

    JavaScript

    Interesting

  9. Our readingThe language best suited to AI is simply the one the models have seen most of in training, which is why they do so well on JavaScript, TypeScript and Python.

    Their wordsthat the language that's most suited for AI is the language that AI has seen the most of in its training set, right? And that's why you could argue AI does really well on JavaScript and TypeScript and Python because it's seen an awful lot of it

    ↗TypeScript, C# and Turbo Pascal with Anders Hejlsbergyoutube.com 19th of 26 in this recording

    JavaScriptPython

    Interesting

  11. Our readingA programming language is a ten-year play: version one has issues, version two fixes them, version three is finally good — and only then does adoption start.

    Their wordsBut but the thing is like doing programming languages, you come to realize it's a long play. I mean, if if you look back at the the stuff I worked on, it it it goes in 10-year cycles at least. And TypeScript didn't really, for example, or C# for that matter. I mean, it took it it takes 10 years to get to, you know, version one is great, but it has all sorts of issues, and then you got to do version two, and then it's not until version three that it really starts to be great.

    ↗TypeScript, C# and Turbo Pascal with Anders Hejlsbergyoutube.com 26th of 26 in this recording

    Interesting