Should static properties in class definition trigger build error when missing /// reference?

[jeffsim]

I have a Typescript project which generates a single bundled .js library for use in client-side webapps. I am using namespaces and /// references. I would like to get design/build-time errors when one file in the library depends on another file and there is no /// reference present; otherwise, it won’t be discovered until runtime. The compiler catches the missing reference in a number of cases, but not if a static variable is declared and assigned in a class's definition.

e.g.: with the following, I get a nice compile-time error:

// AClass.ts
namespace test {
    export class AClass extends ZClass {
        constructor() {
            super();
        }
    }
}
...
// ZClass.ts
namespace test {
    export class ZClass {
        constructor() {
        }
    }
}

TSC complains that error TS2690: A class must be declared after its base class as expected, and adding /// <reference path=’zclass.ts’ fixes it, again as expected.

The problem is when you instantiate a static variable, it doesn’t seem to get caught at build time. e.g., change the above code as follows:

// AClass.ts
namespace test {
    export class AClass {
        static z = new ZClass();
        constructor() {
        }
    }
}
...
// ZClass.ts
namespace test {
    export class ZClass  {
        constructor() {
        }
    }
}

When you compile now, no build errors are emitted; but when you run you get "test.AClass is not a constructor" because ZClass isn’t defined at this point in the bundled .js file; that definition occurs after AClass. If you switch the object names, then it works. Or, if you add /// <reference path="ZClass.ts"/> to AClass.ts, it works.

Should TSC output a build error in this scenario? My concern is that it's easy to miss adding one of those references.

[RyanCavanaugh]

Duplicate #12673 ?

[RyanCavanaugh]

Correctly errors now assuming you've configured your build correctly