The Big Transpile to Javascript List
Web Assembly had the honor of joining HTML, CSS, and Javascript as a universal web browser accepted language. This provides the opportunity in the future to use any language in front-end development through WASM targeted compilers.
Before WASM, if you wanted to use another language in front-end development you’d have to transpile your code to Javascript, a practice that is still heavily practiced today. Below is a list of languages that can be transpiled into Javascript.
Transpiled to Javascript Languages:
Typescript — “TypeScript is a language for application-scale JavaScript. TypeScript adds optional types to JavaScript that support tools for large-scale JavaScript applications for any browser, for any host, on any OS. TypeScript compiles to readable, standards-based JavaScript. Try it out at the playground, and stay up to date via our blog and Twitter account.”
Purescript — “A small strongly typed programming language with expressive types that compiles to JavaScript, written in and inspired by Haskell.”
Coffeescript — “CoffeeScript is a little language that compiles into JavaScript. Underneath that awkward Java-esque patina, JavaScript has always had a gorgeous heart. CoffeeScript is an attempt to expose the good parts of JavaScript in a simple way.”
Scala — “With Scala.js, typos and type-errors are immediately caught and shown to you in your editor, without even needing to compile your code. Refactor any field or method with ease, with the confidence that if you mess it up the editor will tell you immediately. Stop flipping back and forth between your editor and MDN, because your editor will display what methods are available, what arguments they take, what they return, and even their documentation, right in-line with your code!”
F# — “Fable is an F# to JavaScript compiler powered by Babel, designed to make F# a first-class citizen of the JavaScript ecosystem. Check the website for more information and if you find the project useful, don’t forget to give us a star!”
OCaml — “Js_of_ocaml is a compiler from OCaml bytecode to JavaScript. It makes it possible to run pure OCaml programs in JavaScript environment like browsers and Node.js.”
Haskell — “GHCJS is a Haskell to JavaScript compiler that uses the GHC API.”
.Net — “Netjs is a .NET to TypeScript and JavaScript compiler. It uses multiple stages to produce JavaScript for your web apps.”
GO — “GopherJS compiles Go code (golang.org) to pure JavaScript code. Its main purpose is to give you the opportunity to write front-end code in Go which will still run in all browsers.”
ELM — “Gulp plugin that compiles Elm files to JavaScript.”
Racket — “RacketScript is an experimental lightweight Racket to JavaScript compiler. The generated code is ES6, which can be translated to ES5 using Babel or Traceur. RacketScript aims to leverage both JavaScript and Racket’s ecosystem, and make interoperability between them clean and smooth.”
