René's URL Explorer Experiment

{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","headline":"Increase default tsc --init target over time","articleBody":"# Suggestion\r\n\r\n## 🔍 Search Terms\r\n\r\nincrease tsc init target es2016 default\r\n\r\n## ✅ Viability Checklist\r\n\r\nMy suggestion meets these guidelines:\r\n\r\n* [x] This wouldn't be a breaking change in existing TypeScript/JavaScript code\r\n* [x] This wouldn't change the runtime behavior of existing JavaScript code\r\n* [x] This could be implemented without emitting different JS based on the types of the expressions\r\n* [x] This isn't a runtime feature (e.g. library functionality, non-ECMAScript syntax with JavaScript output, new syntax sugar for JS, etc.)\r\n* [x] This feature would agree with the rest of [TypeScript's Design Goals](https://github.com/Microsoft/TypeScript/wiki/TypeScript-Design-Goals).\r\n\r\n## ⭐ Suggestion\r\n\r\nAs of 2022, all releases within the last year of browsers serving \u003e0.1% of worldwide users support at least all of ECMAScript 2019 and nearly all of ECMAScript 2020-2021, while the LTS-supported versions of Node.js support all of ECMAScript 2021. There's very little reason not to have a target at least as high as `\"es2019\"`.\r\n\r\nHow about increasing the default `tsc --init` value for `target` in later TypeScript versions over time to match the highest ECMAScript version supported by all LTS Node versions? That'd be `\"es2021\"` today.\r\n\r\n## 📃 Motivating Example\r\n\r\nHigher targets by default for consumers running `tsc --init` means they'll be able to use more language features as `String.replaceAll` by default. It's confusing to `tsc --init`, then not be able to use them.\r\n\r\n## 💻 Use Cases\r\n\r\nIncreasing default targets to emit code much cleaner in modern runtimes gives a nicer default output for new TypeScript projects. For beginners to TypeScript in particular, it makes the learning curve a little easier as they won't have to mess with configuration options to be able to use basic features.\r\n\r\nThis issue is thematically similar to but not the same as #47572 and #47573. Those issue are about changing the default compiler options when no value is specified on the CLI or in a TSConfig file. This issue is about changing the target specified when using `tsc --init`.","author":{"url":"https://github.com/JoshuaKGoldberg","@type":"Person","name":"JoshuaKGoldberg"},"datePublished":"2022-05-22T17:36:57.000Z","interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":"https://schema.org/CommentAction","userInteractionCount":1},"url":"https://github.com/49206/TypeScript/issues/49206"}