 | |
| Original author(s) | Sebastian McKenzie |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Contributors |
| Initial release | September 28, 2014 [1] |
| Stable release | |
| Repository | |
| Written in | JavaScript |
| Operating system | Linux, macOS, Solaris, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, AIX, Microsoft Windows |
| Type | Compiler |
| License | MIT [3] |
| Website | babeljs |
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]
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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 can also be 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.
