Javascript Babel Run

Introduction

As a JavaScript programmer, you might have come across a situation where you are working with modern JavaScript features that are not supported by all browsers. This is where Babel comes in to play. Babel is a tool that allows you to write modern JavaScript code and convert it into code that can run on older browsers. In this tutorial, we are going to learn how to use Babel to run the modern JavaScript code.

Prerequisites

Before we start with the tutorial, make sure that you have the following installed on your machine:

• Node.js
• NPM (Node Package Manager)

Setting up a Project

The first step is to create a new directory where we will keep our project files. Open up your terminal and enter the following command:

mkdir my_babel_project

This will create a new directory named my_babel_project. Navigate into the directory using the following command:

cd my_babel_project

Now, initialize a new Node.js project by running the following command:

npm init -y

This command will create a package.json file in your directory which will have all the information about your project.

The next step is to install Babel. Run the following command to install Babel:

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

This command will install the core Babel package, the Babel CLI, and the preset for the latest version of JavaScript (@babel/preset-env).

Next, create a file named index.js in your directory and add the following code:

const greeting = () => {
    console.log('Welcome to my Babel project!');
}

greeting();

This is modern JavaScript code that uses an arrow function, which is not supported by all browsers.

Running the Code with Babel

To run our JavaScript code with Babel, we need to create a .babelrc file in our project directory. This file should have the following content:

{
  "presets": ["@babel/preset-env"]
}

This tells Babel to convert our code using the latest JavaScript preset.

The final step is to run the code with Babel. We can do this with the following command:

npx babel index.js --out-file compiled.js

This command will convert our index.js file into code that can be run on older browsers and save it in a new file named compiled.js.

Finally, run the code with the following command:

node compiled.js

You should see the output Welcome to my Babel project! in your terminal.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we learned how to use Babel to run modern JavaScript code. We set up a new project, installed Babel, created a .babelrc file, and ran our code with Babel. Babel is an essential tool for any JavaScript developer and allows us to use the latest JavaScript features without worrying about browser compatibility. Happy coding!