JavaScript strings were (and are) Unicode with the meaning that had at the time it was created, more or less what we call UTF-16 now. Numeric values are 64-bit floats, except for when subject to bitwise operations when they are temporarily converted to unsigned 32-bit integers. Other types include undefined, null, boolean, Object and regular expressions. Date and Array are built-in derivatives of Object, as are boxed Boolean, Number and String.
TypeScript brings (optional) compile-time type checking, which JavaScript doesn't have because it is not compiled. It still relies on prototypical inheritance.
Almost all criticism of JavaScript is born of ignorance as to what it actually is, not helped by the fact that the language syntax goes out of its way to pretend that it is something else. That's a valid criticism, by the way.
-A.
