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Bytes issue #1, published June 22, 2020, covered two separate JavaScript ecosystem stories—not a head-to-head defeat of jQuery and TypeScript. Bootstrap 5 removed jQuery as a required dependency for its JavaScript plugins while retaining optional compatibility with jQuery. Separately, Bytes reported that Deno was moving parts of its own internal implementation from TypeScript to JavaScript, while continuing to support TypeScript for users.
Why the headline says jQuery and TypeScript “take the L”
The phrase is a playful summary of two unrelated changes discussed in the June 22, 2020 issue of Bytes. Bootstrap was changing how its own plugins were implemented; Deno was reportedly changing the language used for some of its internal code. Neither story establishes that jQuery or TypeScript had become obsolete, or that developers should abandon either one.
What Bootstrap 5 changed about jQuery
Bootstrap 5 dropped jQuery as a dependency for its JavaScript plugins and rewrote those plugins in regular JavaScript. In practical terms, a site could use Bootstrap’s plugins without including jQuery just to satisfy Bootstrap. The Bootstrap v5 JavaScript documentation describes Bootstrap as designed to work without jQuery, while also documenting optional integration when jQuery is present.
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Dependency is not the same as compatibility
A dependency is something Bootstrap requires in order to run; compatibility means Bootstrap can still coexist or integrate with it. Bootstrap 5 removed the former, not the latter. That change reduces Bootstrap’s reliance on jQuery, but it does not mean existing projects must remove jQuery or that every project can do so without checking its own code and other dependencies.
Customization was part of the v5 story
Bytes also pointed to Bootstrap 5’s Utilities API, CSS custom properties, and expanded customization documentation as notable changes. Bootstrap’s v5 migration guide records customization guidance and changes introduced in v5. These were signs of an effort to make Bootstrap easier to adapt; they do not, by themselves, prove that every customization need or framework-integration issue was solved.
In 2020, Bytes specifically wondered whether the changes would address friction when using Bootstrap JavaScript with frameworks such as Vue and React. The issue treated that outcome as an open question around the then-upcoming beta, not as a demonstrated result. Its estimate that a beta might arrive in “3–18 months” was a dated editorial expectation, not a current schedule.
Rank #2
Why Deno could use JavaScript internally and still support TypeScript
Bytes reported that Deno planned to remove TypeScript from parts of its internal CLI and JavaScript code in favor of JavaScript. That decision concerned Deno’s implementation, not the language options available to people writing programs for Deno. The issue explicitly said Deno would continue to support TypeScript.
Bytes attributed the internal change to a linked design document and described concerns including slow incremental compilation, runtime performance, code organization, and the burden of keeping internal code and declarations synchronized. The linked design document is not independently established here, so those reasons should be understood as Bytes’ account of the document, not verified direct quotations from Deno’s authors. The issue supplied no performance measurements or quantified gains; “faster product” should not be read as a measured result.
Rank #3
Two different decisions
| Story | What changed | What it does not establish |
|---|---|---|
| Bootstrap 5 | Bootstrap stopped requiring jQuery for its plugins; optional jQuery integration remained documented. | That all projects should remove jQuery, or that Bootstrap 5 cannot work alongside it. |
| Deno, as reported by Bytes in 2020 | Deno was moving some internal code from TypeScript to JavaScript while continuing to support TypeScript. | That TypeScript was no longer supported or was a poor choice for application development generally. |
The issue’s code exercise: an arrow function is not a constructor
Bytes’ exercise illustrated a JavaScript distinction behind a small bug. An arrow function does not have its own this and cannot be called with new as a constructor. Therefore, defining Animal as an arrow function and then trying to instantiate it with new Animal(...) is invalid. Adding a method to Animal.prototype does not turn the arrow function into a constructor.
The repair is to use a traditional function declaration or function expression for the constructor, then attach the method to that function’s prototype:
function Animal(name, type) {
this.name = name;
this.type = type;
}
Animal.prototype.birthday = function() {
// method implementation
};This is specifically a constructor-function pattern. In modern JavaScript, classes are another option for code that needs constructor behavior, but the issue’s fix demonstrates the ordinary function-constructor form.
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The issue’s “One Question Interview” asked what building for the web might look like in five years. Nader Dabit, identified there as a Senior Developer Advocate at Amazon Web Services, predicted blurrier boundaries between front-end, full-stack, and cloud engineering, with small teams using managed cloud services to build larger systems. That was his opinion published in 2020, not a quantified finding or a current forecast.
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How to read the issue now
- Read “jQuery takes the L” narrowly: Bootstrap no longer needed jQuery for its own plugins, but its documentation still described optional coexistence.
- Read “TypeScript takes the L” narrowly: Bytes described an internal Deno implementation decision, not a withdrawal of TypeScript support.
- Treat the reported Deno rationale and five-year prediction as statements presented in a 2020 newsletter, not independently measured conclusions.
- Use the constructor exercise for the JavaScript rule it demonstrates: arrow functions are not substitutes for traditional constructor functions when using
new.
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