Introduction to JavaScript Compilers
A compiler is a software that converts a high-level code scripted by developers to a low-level binary code in machine language which can be easily understood and executed by the processor and this process is called compilation or code compilation. The process of converting low-level code to high-level code is called decompilation. Javascript is a programming language that contains a Javascript compiler and is universally accepted and understood by all browsers to date. However, some people wrongly believe that Javascript is not compiled but interpreted Modern-day javascript compilers that actually perform just in time compilation are in great demand.
Compilers of JavaScript
Javascript IDE’s are used to write code as well as compile it in real-time. Let us know more about the most popular Javascript IDE’s and compilers used in today’s time.
1. WebStorm
It is the most used Javascript IDE available in the market today. It is provided by JetBeans and is not free of cost. It provides a robust option for modern-day JavaScript development coupled with intelligent coding abilities. It includes features like code auto-completion, contextual error-detection, and refactoring for several languages like HTML, Node.js, CSS, and JavaScript. It has an anin-build debugger that debugs the frontend code as well as Node.js apps. Programmers can test the code without exiting the IDE. We can also perform testing within WebStorm itself,it generates a report card with visualized data for the debug tests and spy-jsdetectsany bottlenecks in JS code to mitigate them.
2. Komodo Edit
Komodo Edit is also one of the popular options for JavaScript IDE’s. It can be considered as a lower version of Komodo’s latest IDE as it simplifies development than ever before. It is a powerful as well as simple edit which supports multiple languages. The editor is intuitive and also handles most of the problems. Komodo Edit provides support for all functions of Node.js as well as those of other current web development frameworks. This editor includes provisions like debugging, unit testing, collaboration or integration with other systems. Its advanced features set include a change tracking system, simultaneous selections, quick bookmarks, systematic code blocks, and a smart language detection system. However, it is not available to free of cost but it does provide a 21 day free trial for others interesting in checking it out.
3. Visual Studio Code
It is the most popular IDE in the market not only for JS but several other languages since it supports more than 40 languages. It is a free and cross-platform IDE that works very well for the development of frontend items.VS Code offers remarkable features like smart completion feature with IntelliSense, inbuilt Git integration, the capability to debug code from the editor itself and much more. Its beauty lies in the fact that it is very extensible and is available with several customization options with the many extensions it supports. It also provides support for a variety of languages; making it more understandable as to why it was voted as the most popular developer tool forStackoverflow’s 2019 Developer Survey.
4. Atom IDE
Atom IDE is provided by GitHub and has been around for quite some time. It is a combination of optional packages that are meant to bring similar functionalities like IDE to Atom. It not only works well with Javascript but also provides support for CSS and NodeJS. Atom’s JS package provides a feature set that includes a variety of features, like context-specific auto-completion. Navigating code is convenient than ever before with the help of an outlined view for the document, you can locate all your references, and easily navigate to definitions. It also allows developers to hover on certain lines of code to extract information and discover the complete set of testing tools to know more about errors and alerts to gain better insights on their code. Fortunately, Atom is available for free and is open source.
5. Brackets
It is one of the best code editors available for web development and owned by Adobe. As it is developed using frontend components; Brackets provides a native-like and smooth editing experience for software developers and programmers without any issues related to compatibility. Especially due to its feature to preview the output live, Brackets is integrated with the browser and can directly push code edits to it almost instantly. Software developers can make changes and check the code files and the browser-based live preview simultaneously without any difficulty. Also, the Quick Edit UI ensures that developers have the right set of tools available at hand despite the kind of code they are developing. With all of these features, it is supervising that Brackets is available for free and is open source.
6. Babel
EcmaScript’s latest version ES6 provides many powerful concepts although its supports are not available everywhere. So a common way of using it would be to transpile it into ES5 code. This can be achieved through Grunt, Gulp, Webpack or Babel. Babel was created by Sebastian McKenzien, a JS developer at Facebook In 2014. It was initially called 6to5 but was renamed to Babel later. Babel is a library and it is mostly used to convert between version od ECMAScript code after 2015 into backward compatible code for it to run smoothly in current and older browsers or environments. Here are the main things Babel can help you achieve like it helps you transform the syntax, provides features that are missing in your target environment and helps you with source code transformations too! The latest version of Babel, Babel 6 is focused on making Babel more pluggable. Babel is available in the NPM directory and can be installed locally with the following commands :
npm install –save-dev @babel/core @babel/cli
There are several tools available for the installation of Babel off which BabelCLI is a recommended and built-in method that works on the command line.
Almost every year we have new JavaScript IDE’s, compilers andtranspilers available in the market. But only those which save developer’s time by providing advanced features like code completion, error detection, debugging, unit testing, collaboration, track changes, multiple selections, quick bookmarks, code folding, and code blocks continue to stay in the market and are always in great demand. With these features, it is easier for the developers to build web applications in less amount of time that are compatible across all browsers.