import foo = require(...) should not be considered deprecated in the spec

[basarat]

Reading the official spec : https://github.com/Microsoft/TypeScript/blob/master/doc/spec.md#1133-import-require-declarations

It says :

exist for backward compatibility with earlier versions of TypeScript

However for a vast number of npm modules out there that do export = someFunction there is no ES6 syntax that TypeScript approves of i.e import * as someFunction from "someFunction" will complain that it resolves to a non module entity.

Suggestion:

Either of these would be fine:

• import/require should not be marked as deprecated as there is no alternative
• import * as someFunction from "someFunction" should be allowed.

Workaround : people (and I) have been doing module someFunction{} to quieten the compiler and then import * as works. I am probably wrong but would like an official way forward.

/cc @blakeembrey 🌹

[HerringtonDarkholme]

For short term I think the first option is a fairly easy solution.

But I'm very worried about long term compatibility between TS, commonjs and ESModule. Namely, should allow import DefaultExport from "some-module" when it is declared declare module "some-module" { export = ... }

Related issues and proposals:

#9562

nodejs/node-eps#26

https://github.com/nodejs/node-eps/blob/master/002-es6-modules.md#54-es-consuming-commonjs

After reading these issues I think a new compiler flag that do the type checking for synthetic import and code generation as well.

[DanielRosenwasser]

Hard link: https://github.com/Microsoft/TypeScript/blob/4b96edf72faf6f9b6b464e148c9c02eac96aa4bd/doc/spec.md#1133-import-require-declarations

Also see #16093

[RyanCavanaugh]

The spec is now an "archived" artifact and we won't be tracking defects against it anymore.