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Random thoughts on TypeScript. I’ve noticed 2 things working on a larger Angular project:

1. it is not common to name (aka alias) types
2. type conversion either doesn’t happen, or does with not a lot of safety

In the mocks vs. no mocks debate, I’ve seen a complete ignoring of nuance which I think causes confusion; it sure confuses me at least. Examples include “you don’t need mocks, only stubs” or “test behavior, not implementation”.

I’ve learned 4 things this past 6 months doing peer reviews on many teams’ code in a large Angular code base.

• Pure Functions are not an easy sell
• Avoiding Dependencies in code is not obvious
• Anti-Mock crowd unfortunately is more nuanced
• Acceptance Test Ops continue to be challenging

There are a few options, and strategies. We’ve listed from easiest to most thorough.

1. Use any, then ask for help.
2. Use unknown
3. Use a Record with a string key and whatever value, like Record<string, any>.
4. Use IDontKnowYet as an aliased type or interface.
5. For a multitude of types, use an anonymous Union, like string | number. If you still don’t know, use string | number | any since we’ll know any is the outlier.
6. Use a Pick or Partial of an existing type you may already have nearby.