JavaScript unites Microsoft and Google
Blog posts from Microsoft detail the collaboration, which is producing both the upcoming upgrade to AngularJS (sometimes known simply as Angular) and TypeScript 1.5. "We're excited to announce that we have converged the TypeScript and AtScript languages and that Angular 2, the next version of the popular JavaScript library for building Web sites and Web apps, will be developed with TypeScript," said S. Somasegar, corporate vice president of the developer division at Microsoft, in his blog. AtScript was Google's variation on JavaScript.
In an October 2013 interview with InfoWorld, AngularJS co-author Misko Hevery said the framework is differentiated by features like dependency injection and the notion of a directive, in which HTML drives application assembly. Version 2.0 will feature a unified component model and a modular, mobile-first design while also being faster and easier to use. ECMAScript 6 capabilities and discontinuance of support for older browsers also have been slated to be part of the 2.0 release.
Working with the Angular team, Somasegar said, has helped Microsoft evolve TypeScript to add new language features, such as annotations. TypeScript 1.5, due in a beta release in coming weeks, constitutes the first fruits of the collaboration, said Jonathan Turner, Microsoft program manager for the TypeScript team, in a separate blog post. "We have worked with the Angular team to design a set of new features that will help you develop cleaner code when working with dynamic libraries like Angular 2, including a new way to annotate class declarations with metadata," he said. "Library and application developers can use these metadata annotations to cleanly separate code from information about the code, such as configuration information or conditional compilation checks."