Show HN: ts-blank-space – fast TypeScript type-stripper (bloomberg.github.io)

22 points by tchetwin 1y ago ↗ HN

We've built a new type-stripping compiler for TypeScript source: `ts-blank-space`

It's:

* 5.6x faster than `tsc` due to zero-codegen

* Written in TypeScript

* Uses the official TypeScript parser

* Accurate/preserved source locations

* In used in production

It uses the same novel approach that inspired Node 22.6.0's `--experimental-strip-types` functionality, released last month

4 comments

[ 4.6 ms ] story [ 17.5 ms ] thread

aclaymore 1y ago ↗

Hi, I'm the author of ts-blank-space and happy to answer any questions you have :wave:

matt-attack 1y ago ↗

So is the idea that you would run a normal compiler once in your production pipeline to check syntax, and then re-run it with ts-blank-space to generate the final bundle?

Clearly you can’t eliminate the syntax checking correct?

aclaymore 1y ago ↗

Yes and the TypeScript ASTs generated while checking the code can be re-used when then running ts-blank-space to generate the JavaScript. Only generating the ASTs once is a significant performance win as this work takes much longer than the type-stripping work.

joshstrange 1y ago ↗

I assume this is named (also) as reference to Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space”? If so, very clever.