SYSTEM Cited by 1 source

Skew

Skew is a compile-to-JavaScript programming language created by Evan Wallace (later Figma CTO) around the early-Figma era. Static types, a stricter type system than TS, and an optimizing compiler performing classic compiler optimizations (constant folding, devirtualization — hoisting class methods into global functions when statically safe) plus web-specific ones (real JS integer operations). Used at Figma for the mobile client + prototype-viewer codebase before those platforms supported WebAssembly.

Migrated off to TypeScript over ~2020–2024 via a patterns/gradual-transpiler-migration. Post-migration deleted from Figma's codebase.

Evan Wallace took some of the lessons into systems/esbuild, the web bundler.

Seen in

• sources/2024-05-03-figma-typescript-migration — the migration-off retrospective. Not in active use at Figma as of 2024-05.