So excited this is finally happening. I enjoy every bit of node I get to write, really excited for the updated features. Babel has taken a lot of the edge off, but I dont want to pull babel in for every script.
I come from a Java background, but have been working exclusively with Node.js for the last eight months. Everything I write, I can't help thinking things like "this problem has already been solved in Java many times over", and "this would be safer in a statically typed language", and "this would be faster to write in anything else" (though this is more a reflection on my choice of libs).
The trouble with PureScript is that its different enough to have a different cost model (in terms of performance) thanks to the pervasive closure allocations resulting from currying as well as the typeclass dictionaries. Though I'm sure that once the compiler matures and those costs are eliminated, it would be the best choice.
There is also TypeScript's tooling - while the language is less safe, the language service tools are a lot more advanced than PureScript's (I can't say if the same applies for Haxe though)
However, if you have good test coverage then you can test for that stuff and get a similar experience. For example, if a test break then you know your variable is not a number anymore when you need it to be.
It is. NPM is a joy to use on Mac or Unix.