microsoft / microsoft/TypeScript

Suggestion: Support readonly interfaces in `getSuggestedLibFor...`

Open
#61,323 1 comment 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
Domain: Error Messages Help Wanted Possible Improvement
Dominant language
Go
Stars
111k
Forks
14.3k
PR merge metrics
PR metrics pending

Description

### 🔍 Search Terms

readonly target library

### ✅ Viability Checklist

- [x] This wouldn't be a breaking change in existing TypeScript/JavaScript code
- [x] This wouldn't change the runtime behavior of existing JavaScript code
- [x] This could be implemented without emitting different JS based on the types of the expressions
- [x] This isn't a runtime feature (e.g. library functionality, non-ECMAScript syntax with JavaScript output, new syntax sugar for JS, etc.)
- [x] This isn't a request to add a new utility type: https://github.com/microsoft/TypeScript/wiki/No-New-Utility-Types
- [x] This feature would agree with the rest of our Design Goals: https://github.com/Microsoft/TypeScript/wiki/TypeScript-Design-Goals

### ⭐ Suggestion

Read-only variants of ECMAScript interfaces are currently not eligible for script target suggestions. This is most noticeable with `ReadonlyArray`, since this type can arise through syntax rather than by referencing the symbol directly.

```ts
[1,2,3].toReversed();
// ~~~~~~~~~~
// Property 'toReversed' does not exist on type 'number[]'. Do you need to change your target library? Try changing the 'lib' compiler option to 'es2023' or later.

([1,2,3] as const).toReversed();
// ~~~~~~~~~~
// Property 'toReversed' does not exist on type 'readonly [1, 2, 3]'.
```

It would be useful if the suggested lib checks could resolve these in the same way.

### 📃 Motivating Example

As above.

### 💻 Use Cases

N/A

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start by tracing the existing getSuggestedLibFor... checks and their tests, then compare how mutable and readonly array expressions are resolved. Use the reported toReversed examples as the acceptance cases; done means both forms suggest the appropriate target library without changing runtime behavior.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
typescript
Domain
compilers
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
48/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.