What is Babel?

    • Polyfill features that are missing in your target environment (through @babel/polyfill)
    • Source code transformations (codemods)
    • And more! (check out these for inspiration)

    ES2015 and beyond

    Babel has support for the latest version of JavaScript through syntax transformers.

    These allow you to use new syntax, right now without waiting for browser support. Check out our usage guide to get started.

    Babel can convert JSX syntax! Check out our to get started. Use it together with the babel-sublime package to bring syntax highlighting to a whole new level.

    You can install this preset with

    Type Annotations (Flow and TypeScript)

    Babel can strip out type annotations! Check out either our Flow preset or to get started. Keep in mind that Babel doesn't do type checking; you'll still have to install and use Flow or TypeScript to check types.

    You can install the flow preset with

    1. npm install --save-dev @babel/preset-flow

    or the typescript preset with

    1. npm install --save-dev @babel/preset-typescript

    Create a plugin on the fly with astexplorer.net or use to generate a plugin template.

    1. // A plugin is just a function
    3.     visitor: {
    4.       Identifier(path) {
    5.         let name = path.node.name; // reverse the name: JavaScript -> tpircSavaJ
    7.       }
    8.     }
    9.   };
    10. }

    Debuggable

    Source map support so you can debug your compiled code with ease.

    Babel tries to stay true to the ECMAScript standard, as much as reasonably possible. It may also have specific options to be more spec compliant as a tradeoff to performance.

    Compact

    Babel tries using the least amount of code possible with no dependence on a bulky runtime.

    This may be difficult to do in cases, and there are "loose" options for specific transforms that may tradeoff spec compliancy for readability, file size, and speed.