More flexible default Typescript transpiler handling

[Js-Brecht]

Summary

I am opening this issue primarily for the purpose of tracking discussion regarding potential alternative ways to handle the "typescript by default" feature.

Motivation and Context

Adding gatsby-plugin-typescript to the plugin array by default causes issues when trying to use other methods for handling Typescript transpiling via Webpack. gatsby-plugin-typescript removes all of the types from the code, so by the time another transpiler hits it (with type-checking enabled), transpiling the code will result in a litany of failures.

In #26452, there was some discussion around different possible implementations of the "Typescript by default" feature. My thoughts were to use another property in gatsby-config, @vladar suggested alterations to how the plugin array is processed, and @wardpeet suggested that gatsby-plugin-typescript itself be altered to handle use cases that include typechecking (e.g. switch to ts-loader).

For additional context regarding the issue where this started, see #26027

Method Examples

• Gatsby config option
  • Stops the inclusion of gatsby-plugin-typescript before it happens.
  • Involves increasing the surface area of the gatsby-config api

module.exports = {
  siteMetadata: { ... },
  typescript: false,
  plugins: [ ... ],
}

• Plugin array option

  • Plugin array processing would need to look at the disable option to determine whether or not to include a plugin
  • Either requires installing gatsby-plugin-typescript in your project (for the sole purpose of disabling it), or special handling of internal plugins.

module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    {
      resolve: `gatsby-plugin-typescript`,
      options: {
        disable: true,
      }
    }
  ],
}

• gatsby-plugin-typescript alteration (:+1: :+1:)

  • If typecheck === true, use ts-loader.
  • Would require increasing the options accepted/used by the plugin, to allow configuring ts-loader

module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    {
      resolve: `gatsby-plugin-typescript`,
      options: {
        typecheck: true,
      }
    }
  ],
}

[github-actions[bot]]

Hiya!

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[Js-Brecht]

@wardpeet This issue was supposed to be for additional discussion around this topic. I would hate to see it get closed before it gets addressed