Features Timeline

Features Timeline

Which major new features did we introduce in each Babel version? This page includes a very short summary for each minor release, or you can read the full changelog on GitHub! Additionally, use this timeline to track some other important efforts, such as the babel-polyfills project.

Babel 7.25.0
blog post
- Enable the Stage 4 duplicated named capturing groups proposal by default
Babel 7.24.0
blog post
- Support for the JSON modules Stage 3 proposal
Babel 7.23.0
blog post
- Support for the Decorator Metadata Stage 3 proposal
- Support for the Source Phase Import Stage 3 proposal
- Support for the Deferred Import Evaluation Stage 2 proposal
- Support for the Optional Chaining Assignment proposal
- Support for rewriting .ts extensions in imports
Babel 7.22.0
blog post
- Enable the Stage 4 RegExp v flag proposal by default
- Support for the explicit resource management proposal Stage 3 proposal, including the async version
  
  JavaScript
```
{
  await using db = connect(databaseURL);
  let user = await db.getUserById(userId);
  await db.createPost(user.name, "Hi! :)");
} // Automatically close the db
```
- Support for the updates of the decorators proposal that reached consensus in the March 2023 and May 2023 TC39 meetings
- Parsing support for the Stage 3 import attributes proposal, previously known as “import assertions”
  
  JavaScript
```
import data from "./data.json" with { type: "json" };
```
Babel 7.21.0
blog post
- TypeScript 5.0 support
- Support for the updates of the decorators proposal that reached consensus in the January 2023 TC39 meeting
- Support for the inline RegExp modifiers Stage 3 proposal
  
  JavaScript
```
/(?i-m:a.)/m.exec("a\nAb"); // ["Ab"]
```
Babel 7.20.0
blog post
- TypeScript 4.9 support
- Parser support for the explicit resource management Stage 2 proposal
  
  JavaScript
```
{
  using handle = openFile(name, "w+");
  write(handle, "Hi!\n");
  write(handle, ":)\n");
} // Automatically close the file
```
- Parser support for the import reflection Stage 2 proposal
  
  JavaScript
```
import module mod from "./mod.js";
// later ...
import(mod);
```
babel-loader 9.0.0
release
Babel 7.19.0
blog post
- Support for the Stage 3 version of the decorators proposal
- Transform support for the duplicate named capturing groups Stage 3 proposal
  
  JavaScript
```
/(?<year>\d\d\d\d)-(?<month>\d\d)|(?<month>\d\d)-(?<year>\d\d\d\d)/
```
Babel 7.18.0
blog post
- TypeScript 4.7 support
- Transform support for the Private destructuring Stage 2 proposal
  
  JavaScript
```
class A {
  #x = 2;
  method() {
    const { #x: x } = this;
  }
}
```
- No more need to manually include the regenerator-runtime helper when compiling generators
Babel 7.17.0
blog post
- Support for the new version of the decorators Stage 2 proposal
  
  JavaScript
```
class A {
  @reactive #x = 2;
  @logger
  method() {
    this.#x++;
  }
}
```
- Support for the RegExp set notation and properties of strings Stage 2 proposal
  
  JavaScript
```
/[\p{RGI_Emoji}&&[\0-\uFFFF]]/v;
```
- Parser support for the private destructuring Stage 2 proposal
  
  JavaScript
```
class A {
  #x = 2;
  method() {
    const { #x: x } = this;
  }
}
```
Babel 7.16.0
blog post
- Enable the class static blocks Stage 4 proposal by default
  
  JavaScript
```
class A {
 static {
   initialize(A);
 }
}
```
- TypeScript 4.5 support
- Support ESLint 8 in @babel/eslint-parser.
Babel 7.15.0
blog post
- Enable parsing for the top-level await Stage 4 proposal by default
  
  JavaScript
```
import db from "db";
await db.connect();
```
- Enable the Private Brand Checks Stage 4 proposal by default
  
  JavaScript
```
class A {
 static { initialize(A); } // static block
 #field;
 is(obj) {
   return #field in obj; // private brand check
 }
}
```
- Support the “Hack-style” pipeline operator Stage 2 proposal
  
  JavaScript
```
const result = "World" |> `Hello, ${%}!` |> alert(%);
```
- TypeScript 4.4 support
Babel 7.14.0
blog post
- Enable the Class Fields, Private Methods and Static Class Features Stage 4 proposals by default
- Add the Private Brand Checks and Static Class Blocks proposals to @babel/preset-env‘s shippedProposals
  
  JavaScript
```
class A {
 static { initialize(A); } // static block
 #field;
 is(obj) {
   return #field in obj; // private brand check
 }
}
```
- Support for the async do expressions proposal
  
  JavaScript
```
let valP = async do {
 2 + await computeIt();
};
```
- Support for the importInterop: “node” option in @babel/plugin-transform-modules-commonjs, to aligh Babel with the Node.js behavior
- TypeScript 4.3 support
Babel 7.13.0
blog post
- Top-level targets option (RFC)
- Granular compiler assumptions (docs, RFC)
- Support for the Records and Tuples proposals
  
  JavaScript
```
let rec = #{ x: 1 };
let tup = #[1, 2, 3];
```
- TypeScript 4.2 support
Babel 7.12.0
blog post
- Support for the class static blocks proposal
  
  JavaScript
```
class A {
 static { initialize(A); }
}
```
- Support for imports and exports string names
  
  JavaScript
```
let happy = "wooo!";
export { happy as "😃" };
```
- Parser support for the Import Assertions proposal
  
  JavaScript
```
import json from "./foo.json" assert { type: "json" };
```
- TypeScript 4.1 support
Babel 7.11.0
blog post
- Enable the Logical Assignment and Numeric Separator Stage 4 proposals by default
- Parser support for the Decimal proposal
  
  JavaScript
```
console.assert(0.1m + 0.2m === 0.3m);
```
- TypeScript 4.0 support
@babel/eslint-parser
blog post
Babel 7.10.0
blog post
- Enable parser support for the import.meta Stage 4 proposal by default
- Support for the Ergonomic brand checks for Private Fields proposal
  
  JavaScript
```
class Car {
 #plate;
 race(other) {
    if (#plate in other) console.log("Racing against another car!");
 }
}
```
babel-polyfills
repository
Babel 7.9.0
blog post
- bugfixes option in @babel/preset-env, to workaround browsers bugs rather than compiling whole Features
- TypeScript 3.8 support
- Support for Flow declare class fields
- Support for the automatic JSX runtime
Babel 7.8.0
blog post
- Enable the Optional Chaining and the Nullish Coalescing Stage 4 proposals by default
- Support .mjs configuration files
Babel 7.7.0
blog post
- Parser support for the top-level await proposal
  
  JavaScript
```
import db from "./database.js";
await db.connect();
```
- Add error recovery support for Early Errors in @babel/parser
- Support .json and .cjs configuration files
- TypeScript 3.7 support
Babel 7.6.0
blog post
- Support for static private accessors, part of the static class features proposal
  
  JavaScript
```
class Dog {
 static get #className() { return "Dog"; }
}
```
Babel 7.5.0
blog post
- Support for the F# pipeline operator proposal
  
  JavaScript
```
num |> add(2) |> double
```
- TypeScript namespace support
Babel 7.4.0
blog post
- Support for injecting core-js@3 polyfills
- Support for the Partial Application proposal
  
  JavaScript
```
strings.map(parseInt(?));
```
- Support for static private methods, part of the static class features proposal
  
  JavaScript
```
class Dog {
 static #register() { /* ... */ }
}
```
- TypeScript 3.4 support
Babel 7.3.0
blog post
- Support for instance private accessors, part of the private methods proposal
  
  JavaScript
```
class Dog {
 get #randomId() { return Math.random(); }
}
```
- Support for the smart pipeline operator proposal
  
  JavaScript
```
num |> add(2, #) |> double
```
- Support for named capturing groups in regular expressions
  
  JavaScript
```
str.match({String.raw`/^(?<year>\d{4})-(?<month>\d{2})-(?<day>\d{2})$/`})
```
- TypeScript 3.2 and 2.9 support
Babel 7.2.0
blog post
- Support for instance private methods, part of the private methods proposal
  
  JavaScript
```
class Dog {
 #bark() { console.log("Mew!") }
}
```
Babel 7.1.0
blog post
- Support for the decorators proposal, as it was specified in September 2018
  
  JavaScript
```
class Person {
 @autoIncrement age;
}
```
- Support for static private fields, part of the static class features proposal
  
  JavaScript
```
class Person {
 static #classId = 3;
}
```
Babel 7
blog post

This has a lot more changes since it was 2 years of pre-releases.
- Drop support for un-maintained Node versions: 0.10, 0.12, 4, 5
- Switch to scoped packages (babel-core to @babel/core)
- Remove yearly presets (@babel/preset-es2015) and Stage presets (@babel/preset-stage-0) (blog post).
- Added “pure” (/*#__PURE__*/ ) annotation support in certain cases. (Implemented later as @babel/helper-annotate-as-pure
- Add project-wide babel.config.js config file (docs) and overrides config option.
- Added "useBuiltIns: "usage" to @babel/preset-env
- Support TypeScript via @babel/preset-typescript
- Support JSX Fragments <></>
- Support a ton of TC39 proposals:
  - Unicode Property Regex
  - JSON Superset
  - new.target
  - Class Private Instance Fields (class A { #b = 2 })
  - Optional Catch Binding try { throw 0 } catch { do() }
  - BigInt (syntax only)
  - import.meta (syntax only) (import.meta.url)
  - Numeric Separators (1_000)
  - function.sent
  - Optional Chaining (a?.b)
  - Logical Assignment Operators (a &&= b; a ||= b)
  - Nullish Coalescing Operator (a ?? b)
  - Pipeline Operator (a |> b)
  - Throw Expressions (() => throw new Error("a"))

Features Timeline

Features Timeline

Babel 7.25.0

Babel 7.24.0

Babel 7.23.0

Babel 7.22.0

Babel 7.21.0

Babel 7.20.0

babel-loader 9.0.0

Babel 7.19.0

Babel 7.18.0

Babel 7.17.0

Babel 7.16.0

Babel 7.15.0

Babel 7.14.0

Babel 7.13.0

Babel 7.12.0

Babel 7.11.0

@babel/eslint-parser

Babel 7.10.0

babel-polyfills

Babel 7.9.0

Babel 7.8.0

Babel 7.7.0

Babel 7.6.0

Babel 7.5.0

Babel 7.4.0

Babel 7.3.0

Babel 7.2.0

Babel 7.1.0

Babel 7