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TypeScript is being ported to Go | interview with Anders Hejlsberg

Michigan TypeScript · 102.4K views · 2025-03-11 · 1:01:31

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Overview

An interview with Anders Hejlsberg, lead architect of TypeScript, about porting the TypeScript compiler to Go. He covers the 10x type-checking speedup, lower memory use, and why Go was chosen.

On Hacker News

HN points to it as the authoritative answer to why the team picked Go rather than C# or Rust, citing timestamps on cyclic data structures and garbage collection.

Recommended by 2 HN people across 1 months · HN mentions 2025–2025

Topics

Compilers, interpreters & program analysisC, C++, Rust, Go & systems languagesTech pioneers & interviews
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typescriptgocompilersanders hejlsbergperformance

What people said

duckerude · 2025-03 · Recommendation

Anders Hejlsberg explains here: [VIDEO] . TL;DW: - C# is bytecode-first, Go targets native code. While C# does have AOT capabilities nowadays this is not as mature as Go's and not all platforms support it. Go also has somewhat better control over data layout. They wanted to get as low-level as possible while still having garbage collection. - This is meant to be something of a 1:1 port rather than a rewrite, and the old code uses plain functions and data structures without an OOP style. This suits Go well while a C# port would have required more restructuring.

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yohannesk · 2025-03 · Recommendation

If you are wondering why not Rust instead of Go, they outline why Rust was not chosen. This is a port not a reimplementation. Many of the data structures can not easily be ported to Rust, such as Nodes with cyclic dependencies. Check the longer interview here: [VIDEO] Also, I think the discussion on esbuild's choice of language applies here as well as it has a large similarity. You can find it here on hn

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jtbaker · 2025-08 · Reference

[VIDEO] Around the 13 minute mark, Anders goes into it. IIRC, the big things were the GC and them both supporting cyclic data structures.

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Video by Michigan TypeScript, played through YouTube.

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