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Babel (transcompiler)

Topic: Software

 From HandWiki - Reading time: 4 min

Short description: Backwards compatible JavaScript compiler
Babel
Babel Logo
Logo
Original author(s)Sebastian McKenzie
Developer(s)Contributors
Initial releaseSeptember 28, 2014; 11 years ago (2014-09-28)[1]
Stable release
7.13.14 / March 29, 2021; 4 years ago (2021-03-29)[2]
Written inJavaScript
Operating systemLinux, macOS, Solaris, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, AIX, Microsoft Windows
TypeCompiler
LicenseMIT[3]
Websitebabeljs.io

Babel is a free and open-source JavaScript transcompiler that is mainly used to convert ECMAScript 2015+ (ES6+) code into backwards-compatible JavaScript code that can be run by older JavaScript engines. It allows web developers to take advantage of the newest features of the language.[4]

Developers can use new JavaScript language features by using Babel to convert their source code into versions of JavaScript that a Web browser can process.[5] Babel is used to compile TypeScript into JavaScript.[6] The core version of Babel was downloaded 5 million times a month in 2016, and this increased to 16 million times a week in 2019.[7][8]

Babel plugins transform syntax that is not widely supported into a backward-compatible version. For example, arrow functions, which are specified in ES6, are converted into regular function declarations.[9] Non-standard JavaScript syntax such as JSX can also be transformed.[10][11]

Babel can automatically inject polyfills provided by core-js[12] for support features that are missing entirely from JavaScript environments. For example, static methods such as Array.from and built-ins such as Promise are available only in ES6 and above, but they can be used in older environments if core-js is used.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "first commit". https://github.com/babel/babel/commit/c97696c224d718d96848df9e1577f337b45464be. 
  2. ↑ "Babel Latest Release". https://github.com/babel/babel/releases/latest. Retrieved 29 March 2021. 
  3. ↑ "babel/LICENSE at master". https://github.com/babel/babel/blob/master/LICENSE. Retrieved 12 May 2018. 
  4. ↑ "Technology Radar | Emerging Technology Trends for 2017 | ThoughtWorks". https://www.thoughtworks.com/radar/tools/babel. 
  5. ↑ "Why Babel Matters | codemix". https://codemix.com/blog/why-babel-matters/. 
  6. ↑ Using Babel with TypeScript, TypeScript official website
  7. ↑ "The State of Babel · Babel". https://babeljs.io/blog/2016/12/07/the-state-of-babel. 
  8. ↑ "Babel's Funding Plans · Babel". https://babeljs.io/blog/2019/11/08/babels-funding-plans. 
  9. ↑ "Plugins · Babel". https://babeljs.io/docs/en/plugins. Retrieved 5 July 2019. 
  10. ↑ "Introducing JSX - React". https://reactjs.org/docs/introducing-jsx.html. 
  11. ↑ "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/. 
  12. ↑ "core-js". https://github.com/zloirock/core-js. 



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