What server side Framework should I use on side projects?
At work, I don't always get to choose which languages or frameworks I get to develop in. For example, for the last year and half I have been using Typescript and Angular 2 on the client side with .NET web services written in C# on the server side.
So during the last year and half I have come to really enjoy Angular 2 and Typescript. However when developing a project on the side, I usually don't like all the overhead that comes along with .NET web services. I also tend to lean toward something that I can get up and running quickly. I have usually leaned toward something like Ruby on Rails to develop my server side APIs.
Using the same framework and languages all the time can get boring. So I thought I would look into a new framework to play around with. As I mentioned I have come to love javascript, more specifically Typescript. Due to this I thought I would look into using the MEAN stack, while writing my NodeJS code with Typescript. With NodeJS I get a lot of the speed and quick development time that I have come to enjoy with Rails, while also getting other benefits such as web sockets, less memory utilization, and speed. Then with Typescript I get the sugar coating that makes javascript look and feel like a real Object Oriented language, along with the added security of typing and compilation errors.
So now that I know I wanted to use NodeJS and Typescript, I went about looking for a quick and easy tutorial on how to get up and running with both. While I found nice seed projects and such for doing NodeJS there was very little on how to incorporate Typescript and use it with NodeJS. This is where I will hopefully save you some time.
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