Convert project to TypeScript

[seancdavis]

This could be:

• Beneficial for the site (most important)
• A good learning exercise
• Great fodder for an article

[seancdavis]

I'd like to get there, but the process unfortunately isn't super straightforward. Here's a thread on the topic.

I don't want to sink a bunch of time into adjusting files that 1) work, and 2) have tests written to cover their behavior.

[seancdavis]

Did some more research and I think this is workable. After looking through this starter and recent comments on the referenced issue, I think it can be done, but there are going to be some hurdles.

Challenges

The challenges are:

• There is no shared library for Eleventy type definitions. These would have to be written manually in the project.
• TypeScript does not plan to support copying non-js files into the output dir. And we'll have a mashup of TS(X), JS(X), NJK (maybe?), MD, CSS, etc.
• Including Slinkity (Add Slinkity #360) may further complicate the process. (It might work?) For this reason alone, I wouldn't work this before Add Slinkity #360.
• I don't really want to run multiple services that are dependent on one another, but may be able to get around that.

Building a PoC

Here's how I would go about the process:

1. Create a PoC app. That way I don't have to deal with all the craziness I have going on here right away.
2. Build a super basic site. No TS.
3. Add and configure TypeScript. Convert all JS to TS.
   • I might consider outputting JS to the same location as TS, so as to not complicate the directory structure.
   • I also don't know how to handle git in this situation. Do all files get tracked? Probably. Does it look messy? Probably. Is that okay? Maybe.
4. Then wire up the TS build process with the 11ty build process. This likely requires adding types for 11ty. See here.
   • I'm not sure exactly what to do with the 11ty configuration file(s). I don't know if they have to go in the root or not.
5. Introduce Slinkity with TSX components and CSS files, with Tailwind support.

Working into this Project

If I can get that working, then the next steps would be:

1. Submit changes back to the starter?
2. Make the foundational changes in my project without necessarily converting anything to TS.
3. Make a couple TS conversions to ensure it's working.
4. Convert Jest files to TS? Seems like it'd be nice to solve that together, but maybe a separate issue for that. TBD.

Once that works, this issue is largely solved. The changes could be merged. And I can make further TS conversions as I touch files.

Prerequisites

It seems like I'd want to complete the following before working this:

• Use ESM #383
• Add Slinkity #360

[seancdavis]

This is not something I'm going to do until I move to a new framework. It's not worth the effort with 11ty.