

6to5 (ES6 transpiler) is now renamed Babel - wildpeaks
https://github.com/6to5/6to5

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sebastianmck
See
[https://github.com/babel/babel/issues/568](https://github.com/babel/babel/issues/568)
for why this name change happened.

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wildpeaks
The website still points to
[https://github.com/6to5/6to5](https://github.com/6to5/6to5) yet the link now
redirects to [https://github.com/babel/babel](https://github.com/babel/babel).

Good move because even if it started with ES6, it now supports more (e.g. some
ES7 features and JSX) so the name didn't fit anymore.

~~~
sebastianmck
Haven't finished the rename yet.

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fermigier
There's a well-known, widely used, Python project called Babel
([http://babel.pocoo.org/](http://babel.pocoo.org/)).

I find it quite annoying when people name their project without consideration
for other people in the open source community.

Other historical examples include Mozilla Firebird, which was renamed to
Thunderbird after loud complains of the Firebird database community, or
Twitter's Fabric, which clashes with Fabric
([http://www.fabfile.org/](http://www.fabfile.org/)), another Python project.

~~~
sgentle
I don't think it's as inconsiderate as you imply. Babel (as in tower of) is a
fairly well known biblical reference that I'd expect to find used in all sorts
of project names related to translation.

Indeed, a quick googling shows there's a Python Babel, an Eclipse Babel, an
Emacs Babel, a TeX Babel, a Babel language, and an Open Babel for chemistry.
I'm sure the addition of this new JS Babel won't inconvenience anyone too
much.

If anything, I think the real issue is open source projects overplaying their
hand and insisting they own certain words or ideas that they have no real
claim to, particularly when there isn't any actual chance of confusion. The
Firebird renaming wasn't so much sensible precedent as a good example of a
Mozilla saying "okay please stop yelling, we'll do whatever you want".

~~~
rspeer
I recall there have been multiple, incompatible tools for managing gettext-
style translation files called "Rosetta".

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jarcane
I was wondering about this today; it makes sense to change the name eventually
anyway. Once ES6 starts being implemented more widely by actual browsers, the
old remit is likely to be obsolete.

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norswap
2015 most original project name award.

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albeva
so how is this different from say TypeScript?

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itsbits
once browsers/JS engines supports ES6/ES7, we don't need babel. But thats not
the case with Typescript. But we never know. Babel may start supporting ES8.
It can be never ending process.

~~~
stupidcar
I'm sure Babel will be supporting ES8 and beyond. The rename wasn't just about
ES6/ES7 confusion, I believe, but to reflect the expanded ambition of the
project to be a general transpiler from the edge ES version to the version
with the widest browser and Node.js/io.js support.

However, TypeScript's goals aren't as different as you might think. It is a
strict superset of JavaScript, and although it adds features that are not yet
on the standards track, there are proposals to add optional static typing via
annotations to JS. Given that Google are also interested in such a capability,
given Dart and AtScript, it seems probable that types will eventually become
part of the language.

~~~
itsbits
agreed. But don't think Dart will last long considering Angular community went
for a new AtScript over Dart...Also I am preferring to use Babel is in future
I can remove that dependency which not the case with TypeScript or AtScript..

