I’m convinced that the time to start coding in ECMAScript 6 (ES6) is now. I know a large part of the JavaScript community is waiting for a cue to begin. I’m going to share with you the signals that I’ve been seeing. If you’re not using ES6 yet, hopefully by the end of this post I will have convinced you to start. If you are coding in it already then you’ll have some more confirmation that you’re doing the right thing.
Inbox On Swole
One of the things I love about the JavaScript community is how active it is. You can find JavaScript resources in every medium and format. One of my favorite ways of keeping up with latest developments is by email. I couldn’t tell you how many JavaScript newsletters I’m subscribed to. The number is high though.
I usually scan through these newsletters in batches. This makes it easy to spot trends and common patterns. Right now, they’re all screaming ES6. Fifteen minutes of fame? I think it is more than that.
My belief is that we are at the tipping point. We will continue to see ES6 mentioned until it is the mainstream flavor. Then we’ll just start referring to it as JavaScript again.
The Mouths Of Giants
I’m sure you’ve heard the Sir Isaac Newton quote about “standing on the shoulders of giants”. What about the mouths of giants? It is important to take notice of what the titans in the JavaScript community have been saying about ES6.
Many well-known names in the community have shared their support of using ES6 already. I’m not talking about the type of people who take blind leaps of faith. I’m talking about JavaScript thought leaders. Thankfully, they’ve been vocal about their reasons.
Guillermo Rauch
of LearnBoost, Socket.io, Automattic
Guillermo recently said:
“For the past few months I’ve been exclusively writing ECMAScript 6 code by taking advantage of transpilation to a currently supported version of JavaScript.”
He went on to say:
“Adopting ES6 has simultaneously resulted in increased productivity (by making my code more succinct) and eliminated entire classes of bugs by addressing common JavaScript gotchas.”
Brendan Eich
the creator of JavaScript, member of the ECMAScript Committee
Brendan had this to say about ES6:
“Most new features can be used now…”
Dave Herman
Founder and Principal Researcher at Mozilla Research, member of the ECMAScript Committee
In an interview with Dave about ES6 he said:
“We can gather real world feedback from communities of early adopters, and the transpiler implementors become subject matter experts who can provide invaluable feedback combining the implementor’s perspective with the user developer’s perspective.”
He also touched on the positive impact it has on browsers:
“Allowing developers to start using features sooner helps provide greater pressure on browser vendors to implement features natively.”
That is just a few who have made the switch to ES6. There are plenty more developers who are joining them. There are entire open source project teams who are making the change.
ES6 Called Dibs On Your Libs
A natural by-product of JavaScript engineers moving to ES6 is the migration of libraries and frameworks. The community is now starting to see projects rewritten in ES6 and support being added to them. Don’t be surprised when some of you favorite libs and tools follow suit. Maybe they already have.
Here are a few examples:
io.js
Take io.js, for example. Here we have a fork of Node.js done by the core contributors of Node.js. One of the first things they did was update the V8 JavaScript engine to support as much of ES6 as possible. You can read more about how they’ve exposed these features on the io.js ES6 page.
Meteor.js
Meteor.js adds support for ES6 with the harmony package. It allows you to write your apps in ES6. The files are then transpiled to ES5 using tools that are all within the Atmosphere ecosystem.
Backbone + ES6
In his Backbone TodoMVC + ECMAScript6 repo on Github, Addy Osmani shows us how we can build Backbone apps using ES6.
Search around for ES6 tutorials and support for your favorite JavaScript libs. Chances are you’ll find someone talking about it. If not, then considering starting the conversation yourself.
Why You Should Start Using ES6 Now
It would be foolish to ignore the growing momentum behind ES6. Now is the perfect time to start using ES6. You need this. Your team needs this. The community needs it.
Think about the vast number of JavaScript projects that exist. Now realize they all need tools and support built around them for ES6. In a way, there is a blank canvas to take advantage of. Plenty to do. Open source projects will be begging for help.
And remember the wisdom that Dave Herman shared. We can help push native browser support forward by adopting early. Let that motivate you to do your part.
Conclusion
Should you begin writing exclusively in ES6, transpiling to ES5 and shipping? I don’t know. You will have to decide if that makes sense for your projects and production environments.
You should begin using it in some capacity. This will help you avoid the last-minute rush to try and get caught up. I believe mainstream adoption is coming sooner than some might think.
I’d also like to say that I’m in the same boat. I’ve just started using ES6 myself. I’m still learning and would love to hear about your own experiences with ES6. Please share your own thoughts and ideas below in the comments.
Now that I’ve convinced you that coding in ES6 is the smart thing to do, I won’t leave you hanging. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be writing a lot about ES6. I’ll point out all its new features. I’ll show you how to get up and running in the browser with transpilation. I’ll be sharing my own experiences. I’ll also be doing a round up of the best ES6 resources. So make sure to check back often.
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