TYPED VS UNTYPED PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES

Abstract: TypeScript (TS) has been growing in popularity since its release in October 2012. It is beingadopted by many tech companies who specialize in web development. However, migrating old JSprojects to TS can be challenging and time consuming which can prove problematic due to limitedtime at the developers’ disposal.The aim of this study is to find out what the benefits of using TS over JS are, and their relationto Software Sustainability. By developing a migration tool that helps with automating the migrationprocess we investigate if such a tool would bring benefits to Axis Communications AB; especially,their web developers who work with JS and TS.After the development of the artifact, a focus group consisting of six experienced web developersand one tester was invited to a workshop in order to evaluate it. The workshop consisted of threeparts: Five open questions, a demo presentation of the artifact, and an artifact evaluation basedon the system dimensions: goal, environment, structure, activity, and evolution, by using the fivepoints Likert scale.Results from the workshop allowed us to understand better the needs and the challenges faced byAxis developers during software maintenance. Furthermore, the results indicated that the artifactnot only helps with improvements in terms of code maintenance but also indirectly improves codegreenability which in itself lowers CO2 emissions as a result.Migrating JS to TS improves some aspects of code maintenance and maintainability, and ourartifact helps with the automation of that migration process. With JavaScript, companies have tobalance sustainability with greenability. Fortunately, by adding green maintenance practices andusing TypeScript it is easier to keep that stability.