six  :::   JavaScript you can bet on.

Seriously, the shortest path on the Web usually is the winning play. JS is demonstrably able to grow new capabilities with less effort than a “replacement” entails. Always bet on JS! — Brendan Eich

Elevator

Six is a language super-set of JavaScript that enables new syntactic features from the 6th edition of ECMAScript to be used, through a transpiler, in your scripts today.

WARNING: Still in a very early state, proceed with caution.

You can try it out now with this interactive demo

Usage

// Install
npm install six -g

// Execute
six myFile.js

// Compile
six --compile --output <OUTPUT> <SOURCE>
six -c -o <OUTPUT> <SOURCE>

// Watch and compile
six -cwo <OUTPUT> <SOURCE>

Examples

// Arrow Function
[ 1, 2, 3 ].forEach( item => print(item) )

// Egal Operators
if(x isnt y && y is z) { }

// Classes
class Person {
  constructor(name) {
    this.name = name
  }
  greet() {
    print("Hello, my name is " + this.name + ".")
  }
}

// Quasi Literals / Template Strings
var me = new Person("Matthew")
print(`Hello, my name is ${me.name}.`)

// Object Property Shorthands
var myObj = {

  // Method definition
  method() {
    print("method")
  },
  
  // Implicit return, concise methods
  concise( x ) x + 1
}

// Default and Rest parameters
function x( y=0, ...z ) {}

// Spread
var x = [ 1, 2, 3 ]
print(...x)

// Destructuring
var [ a, b ] = x
var { c, d } = { c: 1, d: 2 }

// Iterators
var stuff = ["shoes", "shirt", "shorts"]

for(var thing of stuff) {
  print(thing)
}

// Comprehensions
var count = [1, 2, 3]
var plusOne = [x + 1 for(x of count)]

// Importing modules from files or node modules
module path = "path"
module local = "./local.js"

// Aliasing modules
module files = fs

// Importing content from a module
import dirname from fs

// Importing content direct from a file
import local_function from "./local.js"

// Export a function from a module.
export function mod_func() { }

// Export variables from a module.
export var a = 400, b = {}

Module Support

six outputs UMD compatible modules allowing modules to work in CommonJS environments such as node in addition to the web browser via an AMD module environment such as requirejs. Each file forms an implicit module whether a "module" declaration is used or not and thus the export (or the exports object) must be used to export data to the scope. The "-g" or "--global" command-line argument can be used to inhibit this behavior allowing code the possiblity to write directly to the global namespace when imported using an AMD module loader.

About

The Six project is building on top of the work already being done by different individuals and groups around the web. Particularly influential is the amazing work done by Ariya Hidayat and collaborators on the ECMAScript parser Esprima.

The project was started out of a desire to build on the work done with the Harmonizr project by Jason Diamond and still borrows some of it's internals from that source.

A good deal of the work being done on and around the general workflows and APIs has been modeled after the very successfull CoffeeScript project by Jeremy Ashkenas.

The ability to offer a tool such as this can't possibly exist without the members of es-discuss, and all the great people involved with TC39 and standardization of the ECMAScript language.

I have a fundamental belief in the philosophies around these projects and the open web in general. I believe this platform's future is vital to us all and I want to do everything I can to help move the needle.

I'm betting on JavaScript.