TypeScript's number type is a lie

TypeScript's number type is a lie(bluepnume.medium.com)

4 points by bluepnume 36 days ago | 6 comments

Supporting operator overloading is part of the linked TS issue [1]. But I'm more curious: why did operator overloading in ES6 itself [2] die?

[1] https://github.com/microsoft/TypeScript/issues/42218

[2] https://github.com/tc39/proposal-operator-overloading

bluepnume 36 days ago | |

Probably if nothing else, impossible to have it perform well without static typing?

glkindlmann 36 days ago | | |

But traversing the prototype chain (to figure out method dispatch) is also potentially slow without static typing, and we're managing that ok, no?

newaccountman2 36 days ago |

Am I incorrect in thinking this is not a TypeScript problem, but a problem most languages have, and that TypeScript is one of the few with a neat little solution?

bluepnume 36 days ago | |

In most languages you could probably solve this problem with a class. But wrapping all your numbers in a class with runtime consequences, just for a bit of extra type safety, feels quite extreme.