A few weeks back, I posed a question in the ionic-v2
Slack channel and received a response from a developer on the Ionic Team:
We're fully embracing TS.
While you have the option to work in an ES6 workflow, we strongly encourage the use of TypeScript.
Therefore, TypeScript is a requirement for Ionic 2 applications.
UPDATE:
On the Ionic2 resource pages, there is a dedicated section titled All in on TypeScript where the Ionic Team elaborates on the advantages of utilizing TypeScript:
TypeScript, a superset of JavaScript, offers benefits such as:
- Optional static typing (emphasis on optional)
- Type Inference, providing some advantages of types without the need for actual use
- Access to ES6 and ES7 features prior to mainstream browser support
- The ability to compile to a JavaScript version compatible with all browsers
- Robust tooling support with IntelliSense
Due to these exceptional features and the significant benefits it offers developers, Ionic 2 applications are exclusively written in TypeScript rather than ES6.