Babel (Transpiler)

Babel.js
Original author(s)	Sebastian McKenzie
Developer(s)	contributors
Stable release	7.6.1 / September 6, 2019; 4 years ago
Written in	JavaScript
Operating system	Linux, macOS, Solaris, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, AIX, Microsoft Windows
Type	compiler
License	MIT
Website	babeljs.io

Babel is a free and open-source JavaScript transpiler that is mainly used to convert ECMAScript 2015+ (ES6+) code into a backwards compatible version of JavaScript that can be run by older JavaScript engines. Babel is a popular tool for using the newest features of the JavaScript programming language.^[3]

Developers can use new JavaScript language features by using Babel to convert their source code into versions of JavaScript that evolving browsers are able to process.^[4] The core version of Babel is downloaded 5 million times a month as of 2016.^[5]

Babel plugins are used to transform syntax that is not widely supported into a backwards-compatible version. For example, arrow functions, which are specified in ES6, are converted into regular function declarations.^[6] Non-standard JavaScript syntax such as JSX can also be transformed.^[7]^[8]

Babel provides polyfills to provide support for features that are missing entirely from JavaScript environments. For example, static methods like Array.from and built-ins like Promise are only available in ES6+, but they can be used in older environments if a Babel polyfill is used.^[9]

References

↑ "Babel.js Latest Release". https://github.com/babel/babel/releases/latest. Retrieved 11 September 2019.
↑ "babel/LICENSE at master". https://github.com/babel/babel/blob/master/LICENSE. Retrieved 12 May 2018.
↑ "Technology Radar | Emerging Technology Trends for 2017 | ThoughtWorks". https://www.thoughtworks.com/radar/tools/babel.
↑ "Why Babel Matters | codemix". https://codemix.com/blog/why-babel-matters/.
↑ "The State of Babel · Babel". https://babeljs.io/blog/2016/12/07/the-state-of-babel.
↑ "Plugins · Babel". https://babeljs.io/docs/en/plugins. Retrieved 5 July 2019.
↑ "Introducing JSX - React". https://reactjs.org/docs/introducing-jsx.html.
↑ "Using React and building a web site on Azure". Microsoft Faculty Connection. https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/uk_faculty_connection/2017/07/21/using-react-and-building-a-web-site-on-azure/.
↑ "@babel/polyfill". https://babeljs.io/docs/en/babel-polyfill. Retrieved 5 July 2019.

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[1] "Babel.js Latest Release". https://github.com/babel/babel/releases/latest. Retrieved 11 September 2019.

[2] "babel/LICENSE at master". https://github.com/babel/babel/blob/master/LICENSE. Retrieved 12 May 2018.

[3] "Technology Radar | Emerging Technology Trends for 2017 | ThoughtWorks". https://www.thoughtworks.com/radar/tools/babel.

[4] "Why Babel Matters | codemix". https://codemix.com/blog/why-babel-matters/.

[5] "The State of Babel · Babel". https://babeljs.io/blog/2016/12/07/the-state-of-babel.

[6] "Plugins · Babel". https://babeljs.io/docs/en/plugins. Retrieved 5 July 2019.

[7] "Introducing JSX - React". https://reactjs.org/docs/introducing-jsx.html.

[8] "Using React and building a web site on Azure". Microsoft Faculty Connection. https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/uk_faculty_connection/2017/07/21/using-react-and-building-a-web-site-on-azure/.

[9] "@babel/polyfill". https://babeljs.io/docs/en/babel-polyfill. Retrieved 5 July 2019.

v t e JavaScript
Code analysis	ESLint JSHint JSLint
Transcompilers	Babel.js CoffeeScript LiveScript Dart Emscripten Google Closure Compiler Google Web Toolkit Morfik TypeScript AtScript Opa Nim Haxe ClojureScript WebSharper PureScript Reason Elm
Concepts	Client-side JavaScript library JavaScript syntax Unobtrusive JavaScript
Debuggers	Firebug Komodo IDE Microsoft Script Debugger Microsoft Script Editor Opera Dragonfly Web Inspector
Doc generators	JSDoc
Editors (comparison)	Ace Cloud9 IDE Atom CodeMirror Light Table Brackets Koding PhpStorm Orion Visual Studio Visual Studio Express Visual Studio Code Visual Studio Team Services
Engines	Comparison of engines DOM support List of ECMAScript engines
Frameworks	Comparison of JavaScript frameworks List of JavaScript libraries
Related technologies	Cascading Style Sheets Document Object Model HTML Dynamic HTML Ajax JSON WebAssembly asm.js
Package managers	npm
Application Bundlers	Webpack
Server-side	Active Server Pages CommonJS JSGI Node.js Wakanda
Unit testing	Jasmine Mocha QUnit List of JavaScript unit testing frameworks Jest
People	Douglas Crockford Brendan Eich John Resig

Babel (Transpiler)

See also

References

External links