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Learning TypeScript

Building a Real-Time Chat Server

A hands-on guide to learning TypeScript by incrementally building a WebSocket-based chat server. Each chapter introduces new language concepts through practical features - starting from a raw TCP connection and ending with a fully tested, real-time chat system with rooms, authentication, and message history.

Who this is for

This guide teaches TypeScript to people who can already program in another language. It assumes you are comfortable using a terminal and understand basic ideas like variables, functions, and loops. It does not teach programming from scratch - if you are completely new to programming, learn the basics of JavaScript first, then come back here.

Contents

01Hello, TypeScript02TypeScript Fundamentals03The Type System04Interfaces, Objects & Classes05Your First TCP Server06Understanding HTTP07WebSocket Fundamentals08Generics09Enums & Discriminated Unions10Error Handling11Modules & Project Structure12Async/Await & Promises13Advanced Types14JSON & Validation15The Node.js Runtime16Chat Server Core17Authentication & Sessions18Decorators & Metadata19Testing20Logging, Config & CLI21Database Persistence22REST API23Real-Time Features24Security & Hardening25Packaging & Deployment

Each chapter lives on its own branch, built on the one before it - chapter1 through chapter25 - so you can check one out and run exactly the code that chapter describes. The chapter text is that branch's README.md.