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Most of that is so people can use the slightly nicer syntax of the newer version of JavaScript in a more supported way as it's transpired. Honestly I'm not a fa

Most of that is so people can use the slightly nicer syntax of the newer version of JavaScript in a more supported way as it's transpired. Honestly I'm not a fan because, as you can see, it's a big ass bucket of extra complexity for some extra, albeit nice, syntax updates. I'm waiting for wide support of ECMAScript 6 before I start using it widely. Though I feel I'm a bit in the minority here I just don't want to deal with all of the transpiling complexities if I don't need to.

abecedarius 11y ago
I've started using ES6 sans 'transpiler' for web development on Chrome. There's still the build step for release to other browsers, but so far I haven't bothered. (I think your decision is completely reasonable; only pointing out that since just this month, with Chrome 49 out, you can develop without any build step.)
- david-given 11y ago
  Yup. I'm working on a Polymer project in ES6. I develop in Chrome with it pointing directly at my source, so I get a full debugger and quick reloads by hitting the F5 button. Then I use crisper/babel/vulcanise via a ninja build script to generate an ES5 deployment package for the other browsers. It works really well. (ES6 is so, so much nicer than ES5. It's almost like a real language now!)
  - voltagex_ 11y ago
    Is there anything you can share of that ninja script? I've been looking at it as a replacement for environments where grunt doesn't work too well.
    - david-given 11y ago
      Sure --- it's a mess, though. https://github.com/davidgiven/gruntle/blob/gruntle/build.ninja https://github.com/davidgiven/gruntle/blob/gruntle/build.nin... https://github.com/davidgiven/gruntle/blob/gruntle/build https://github.com/davidgiven/gruntle/blob/gruntle/build build is a tiny Lua preprocessor which expands templates in build.ninja. It needs a cleanup but it works, it's way faster than gulp, and is much easier to debug. Haven't touched grunt so I don't know how it compares there.
      - voltagex_ 11y ago
        Thanks. Could I get away without the Lua?
        david-given 11y ago
        Yes, but you'd need to expand the source file rules inline --- I added the Lua because I was fed up with doing it by hand. (Ninja doesn't have implicit rules.)
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- bzbarsky 11y ago
  Note that other browsers (specifically Firefox and Edge) generally have better ES6 support than Chrome does, so a "build step" is not needed for them unless you happen to be using one of the very few things that Chrome supports and they do not.

abecedarius 11y ago

I've started using ES6 sans 'transpiler' for web development on Chrome. There's still the build step for release to other browsers, but so far I haven't bothered. (I think your decision is completely reasonable; only pointing out that since just this month, with Chrome 49 out, you can develop without any build step.)

david-given 11y ago
Yup. I'm working on a Polymer project in ES6. I develop in Chrome with it pointing directly at my source, so I get a full debugger and quick reloads by hitting the F5 button. Then I use crisper/babel/vulcanise via a ninja build script to generate an ES5 deployment package for the other browsers. It works really well. (ES6 is so, so much nicer than ES5. It's almost like a real language now!)
- voltagex_ 11y ago
  Is there anything you can share of that ninja script? I've been looking at it as a replacement for environments where grunt doesn't work too well.
  - david-given 11y ago
    Sure --- it's a mess, though. https://github.com/davidgiven/gruntle/blob/gruntle/build.ninja https://github.com/davidgiven/gruntle/blob/gruntle/build.nin... https://github.com/davidgiven/gruntle/blob/gruntle/build https://github.com/davidgiven/gruntle/blob/gruntle/build build is a tiny Lua preprocessor which expands templates in build.ninja. It needs a cleanup but it works, it's way faster than gulp, and is much easier to debug. Haven't touched grunt so I don't know how it compares there.
    - voltagex_ 11y ago
      Thanks. Could I get away without the Lua?
      - david-given 11y ago
        Yes, but you'd need to expand the source file rules inline --- I added the Lua because I was fed up with doing it by hand. (Ninja doesn't have implicit rules.)
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
bzbarsky 11y ago
Note that other browsers (specifically Firefox and Edge) generally have better ES6 support than Chrome does, so a "build step" is not needed for them unless you happen to be using one of the very few things that Chrome supports and they do not.