Two projects geared to JavaScript compilation, Babel and xto6, are moving forward with the goal of helping developers navigate next-generation capabilities.

Version 5.0 of the Babel compiler, made available last week, includes ECMAScript 7 proposals like decorators, for annotating classes and properties at design time; class properties; and additional export-from statements. ECMAScript 7 is in development even as ECMAScript 6, the predecessor, still has yet to be formally released. With Babel, ECMAScript 6 or higher code is turned into ES5-friendly code, so it can be used without waiting for browser support.

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