Welcome to the Babel documentation! Babel is a toolchain that is used to convert ECMAScript 2015+ code into a backwards-compatible version of JavaScript that can be run on today's browsers and environments.

Overview

Babel is a powerful tool that allows you to use the latest JavaScript features today, even if your target browsers do not support them natively. It does this by transforming your code into a version of JavaScript that is compatible with older environments.

Features

  • Transpilation: Converts modern JavaScript to a version that is compatible with older browsers.
  • Polyfills: Provides polyfills for features that are not supported in some environments.
  • Plugins and Presets: Allows you to extend Babel's functionality with custom plugins and presets.

Getting Started

To get started with Babel, you can install it using npm:

npm install --save-dev @babel/core @babel/preset-env

Once installed, you can configure Babel in your babel.config.js file:

module.exports = {
  presets: ['@babel/preset-env'],
};

For more information on getting started with Babel, please visit the Babel Getting Started guide.

Example

Here's an example of how Babel can transform modern JavaScript code:

// Before Babel
async function hello() {
  console.log('Hello, world!');
}

// After Babel
hello().then(() => console.log('Hello, world!'));

In this example, Babel has transformed the async function declaration into an async function expression, which is compatible with older JavaScript environments.

Resources

JavaScript