IdeaSift

TypeScript library authors struggle to publish usable APIs

JavaScript and TypeScript library authors can find that their build tool does not emit declaration files, or that generating them requires a separate or slow step. Documentation generators may reflect implementation structure instead of intended usage, or reject type syntax developers expect to work, leaving some authors to document APIs by hand. A focused library-publishing tool could address these related build and documentation gaps; template typing is a less-connected outlier.

For typeScript and JavaScript library authors. Mentioned from Jan 2021 to Mar 2024 on GitHub and Hacker News.

7 different people described this problem in 4 separate discussions.

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0 mentions in the last 12 weeks
Indie fit
5.0/10
Pain
5.4/10
Frequency
7.5/10
Willingness to pay
0.0/10
Momentum
5.0/10
Who pays
Professionals
Competition
High
Build difficulty
Medium

What people said

Quoted word for word. Follow a link to read the whole discussion.

  1. If you haven't implemented one of the main features of typescript which is types, how can you expect people to build a typescript library with it, as there will never be any type definitions
  2. Generate type declarations during `bun build` It seems like given this stance, library authors who want to provide types can't really use bun build for their libs/packages (every author except DHH) 🤷 . Not a dealbreaker (can still use other parts of bun), but worth noting.
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