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JavaScript Angular Basics Setting Up an Angular Application The Importance of Static Typing in Angular

Kevin Gates
Kevin Gates
15,053 Points
Posted by Kevin Gates
Kevin Gates
15,053 Points

Angular 2+ with TypeScript is very similar to C#, is that a fair assessment? Should C# / .NET users start with Angular?

So I've been learning C# and ASP.NET for my job. At first I was in love with Vue Framework (and I still am), however I know a lot of pre-made templates in Visual Studio encourage Angular. So I'm taking this Angular course.

It appears so far that the use of TypeScript makes the code appear very similar to C#. (And Microsoft created TypeScript, so I guess that makes sense.)

I'm wondering 2 things for those more experienced:

  1. Is TypeScript in it's fuller usage pretty similar to C# and therefore an easier learning curve for C# users?
  2. If one is on .NET, is using Angular likely a wiser course of action compared to Vue? Or should we stick with Vue? (I know Vue is moving more towards TypeScript also: https://vuejs.org/v2/guide/typescript.html)

Thanks everyone!

1 Answer

Brendan Whiting
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.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree seal-36
Brendan Whiting
Front End Web Development Techdegree Graduate 84,738 Points
Brendan Whiting
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree seal-36
Brendan Whiting
Front End Web Development Techdegree Graduate 84,738 Points

I love TypeScript. I'm glad that the Angular team decided to use TypeScript. It's worth noting that you can use TypeScript with React. (You didn't mention React, is there a reason?).

The connection between C# and TypeScript isn't just Microsoft, it's the same guy, Anders Hejlsberg who's behind both. But there are some other things you might want to consider when you're picking your front end framework, other than familiar syntax and paradigms. I haven't used Vue, so I can only really compare/contrast Angular and React:

  • They say React is more of a 'library', Angular is more of a 'framework'. Some of this is just semantics. But Angular is more opinionated and comes with more functionality built in. React is mostly just the core view library, and requires you to import other libraries to take of other needs. React has a lower barrier of entry to get up to speed since it's smaller. But in order to build a complex app in React you'll have to get up to speed with other libraries as well. React is more of an ecosystem, which means there's lots of different competing proposals to accomplish the same thing, which can mean more chaos, but it can also mean a more healthy innovation where the best ideas rise to the top.
  • React is more popular than Angular. It's hard to make sense of the stats, since AngularJS 1.x is usually mixed in but it's really a different beast. There are a lot of benefits to being part of a big community - more learning resources, more stackoverflow questions and answers, more jobs, etc.

If you're going to with Angular, sadly Treehouse doesn't have much to offer beyond this short intro course. There are some excellent courses on Udemy, PluralSight, and Lynda on Angular. Also, don't overlook the Tour of Heroes tutorial in the Angular docs (a lot of people seem to overlook it, maybe because angular docs aren't buying advertising).