microsoft / microsoft/TypeScript

Support for JSDoc interface definition

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#33,207 7 comments 10 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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Description

Search Terms

jsdoc, interface
I found https://github.com/microsoft/TypeScript/issues/16142 which was closed by the reporter, and never reopened even though some other people suggested it.

Suggestion

JSDoc has a way to declare interfaces, through @interface, @function (and then @implements on the class). It would be great if tsc could support them (defining a TS interface based on that info).

Use Cases

JSDoc interfaces are useful to define interfaces implemented by multiple classes, that are then used based on this interface. This is part of JSDoc, but currently unsupported by tsc.

Examples

/**
 * @interface Metric
 */
/**
 * @function
 * @name Metric#getName
 * @returns {string}
 */
/**
 * @function
 * @name Metric#compute
 * @param context
 * @param [extra]
 * @returns {Promise<object>}
 */

/**
 * @constructor
 * @implements {Metric}
 */
function ActivityScoreMetric () {
    // [REDACTED]
}
ActivityScoreMetric.prototype = {
  compute: function (context, extra) {
      // [REDACTED]
  },

  getName: function () {
    return 'activity_score'
  }
}

// Other implementations go there

// Later code deals with `Array<Metric>` for some variables

Checklist

My suggestion meets these guidelines:

  • This wouldn't be a breaking change in existing TypeScript/JavaScript code
  • This wouldn't change the runtime behavior of existing JavaScript code
  • This could be implemented without emitting different JS based on the types of the expressions
  • This isn't a runtime feature (e.g. library functionality, non-ECMAScript syntax with JavaScript output, etc.)
  • This feature would agree with the rest of TypeScript's Design Goals.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by running tsc against the issue's JSDoc example and reviewing how the compiler handles @interface, @function, @implements, and generic types. Define the expected behavior for the Metric interface, its methods, multiple implementations, and Array; done means the example is type-checked consistently without changing emitted JavaScript.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
javascript, typescript
Domain
compilers
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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