Uploaded October 2023 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
More than a library but not quite a language, Ectype showcases a novel approach to web languages: rather than creating a completely new syntax and transforming that code into JavaScript, Ectype reshapes JavaScript itself into a cleaner, more deliberate language.
Ectype uses a novel pairing of a library and type-checker that work in tandem to bring new language features like static type-safety, runtime type introspection, and more, directly to vanilla JavaScript. Declare types and validate foreign data, all from the familiar syntax of JavaScript, backed by the guarantees of static type-checking.
At the same time, Ectype allows JavaScript to be a scripting language again: because files written with Ectype are all valid JavaScript, they can be immediately run in Node, Deno, Bun, the browser, and anywhere else JavaScript will run - all without needing to be compiled or bundled first.
Holly Wu
Recreational Language Enthusiast
Holly has been doing full-stack web dev in one form or another for over a decade, but it wasn’t until 2017 that she got bit by the programming language design bug and disappeared down the rabbit hole of trying to make JavaScript better. She emerges from that rabbit hole before you now, covered in peculiar flowers and luminous fungi, to present to you the discoveries from her journey.
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Recorded Sept 22, 2023 at Strange Loop 2023 in St. Louis, MO.
thestrangeloop.com
More than a library but not quite a language, Ectype showcases a novel approach to web languages: rather than creating a completely new syntax and transforming that code into JavaScript, Ectype reshapes JavaScript itself into a cleaner, more deliberate language.
Ectype uses a novel pairing of a library and type-checker that work in tandem to bring new language features like static type-safety, runtime type introspection, and more, directly to vanilla JavaScript. Declare types and validate foreign data, all from the familiar syntax of JavaScript, backed by the guarantees of static type-checking.
At the same time, Ectype allows JavaScript to be a scripting language again: because files written with Ectype are all valid JavaScript, they can be immediately run in Node, Deno, Bun, the browser, and anywhere else JavaScript will run - all without needing to be compiled or bundled first.
Holly Wu
Recreational Language Enthusiast
Holly has been doing full-stack web dev in one form or another for over a decade, but it wasn’t until 2017 that she got bit by the programming language design bug and disappeared down the rabbit hole of trying to make JavaScript better. She emerges from that rabbit hole before you now, covered in peculiar flowers and luminous fungi, to present to you the discoveries from her journey.
----
Recorded Sept 22, 2023 at Strange Loop 2023 in St. Louis, MO.
thestrangeloop.com
