Skip to content

Instantly share code, notes, and snippets.

@matthiasak
Created October 15, 2015 13:12
Show Gist options
  • Save matthiasak/c3c9c40d0f98ca91def1 to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.
Save matthiasak/c3c9c40d0f98ca91def1 to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.
Languages that compile to JS (from CoffeeScript wiki)

CoffeeScript Family (& Friends)

Family (share genes with CoffeeScript)
  • Coco A CoffeeScript dialect that aims to be more radical and practical, also acts as a test bed for features that get imported in CoffeeScript.
    • LiveScript is a fork of Coco that is much more compatible with CoffeeScript, more functional, and with more features.
  • IcedCoffeeScript A CoffeeScript dialect that adds support for await and defer keywords which simplify async control flow.
  • Parsec CoffeeScript CS based on parser combinators. The project's aim is to add static metaprogramming (i.e. macros + syntax extensibility) to Coffee Script (CS), similar to how Metalua adds such features to Lua. The resulting compiler, once merged with the official compiler, should be usable as a drop-in replacement for it.
  • Contracts.coffee A dialect of CoffeeScript that adds built-in support for contracts.
  • Uberscript, a CoffeeScript fork that adds type annotations which are compiled to Google closure compiler type annotation comments.
  • ToffeeScript A dialect of CoffeeScript that support Asynchronous Syntax and Regexp operator =~
  • Caffeine A dialect of CoffeeScript that support packages and classes import, useful for browser applications
  • heap.coffee A dialect of CoffeeScript that offers a C-like type system with manual memory management
  • EmberScript Ember.js-infused CoffeeScript.
Friends (philosophically related)
  • Kaffeine Enhanced Syntax for JavaScript.
  • Jack Making programming playful.
  • move A simpler and cleaner programming language.
  • Moescript Indent-based language
  • pogoscript language that emphasises readability, handles async control flow nicely, is friendly to domain specific languages and compiles to regular JavaScript
  • LispyScript A JavaScript with Lispy syntax and Macros.
  • wisp A homoiconic JavaScript dialect with Clojure syntax, S-expressions and macros. Aims to be rich subset of Clojure(Script) that seamlessly interops with both Clojure(Script) and JavaScript.
  • Hot Cocoa Lisp A Lisp-like language that compiles to JavaScript.
  • Sibilant JavaScript with a lisp.
  • ki Clojure-like syntax, mori's immutable data structures in a few sweet.js macros. Can be intermixed with JavaScript.
  • jisp A JS-native and axiomatic Lisp that focuses on the core ideas of code-as-data, S-expressions, and macros, introducing as few new concepts as possible.
  • Ham looks very similar to JavaScript at first, but offers (hopefully) many useful features
  • GorillaScript Compile-to-JavaScript language designed to empower the user while attempting to prevent some common errors, offers Macros and optional Typing
  • RedScript Ruby-flavored JavaScript.
  • Daonode functional logic solver, compiler.
  • LiteScript Literate, highly-readable, type annotated, imperative language that compiles to JavaScript.
  • ColaScript similar to Dart, CoffeeScript, Python and PHP
  • Taijilang a customizable and extensible language with dynamic parser and meta language.
  • MoonScript MoonScript is a dynamic scripting language that compiles into Lua. The syntax of MoonScript has been heavily inspired by the syntax of CoffeeScript.
  • Earl Grey An extensible language with pattern matching, hygienic macros and a syntax similar to Python.
  • Khepri Lightweight language that reworks Javascript's syntax to be better for untyped functional-style programming.
  • Spider Spider is a programming language that compiles to JavaScript (ES5 and ES6 targets). It takes the best ideas of Go, Swift, Python, C# and CoffeeScript.
  • CirruScript write JavaScript with indentations and polish notations, similar to S-Expression but with fewer parentheses.
  • Pallet Pallet is a innovative, modern programming language with a nice syntax, and optional functional programming and loose variable type checking.
  • TLC Tag Line Commands is a inline macro language for calling+formatting javascript/coffeescript/livescript json output into HTML.
  • CokeScript is a inspired by Python and Ruby that integrate natively with the Virtual-DOM library
  • imba compiles to performant and readable JavaScript

JavaScript Extensions

Security enforcing JavaScript
  • Caja Compiles ES5/strict to ES3 and supports object-capabilities
  • ADsafe Client-side static verifier and API, making third party scripts safe.
  • FBJS Facebook JavaScript, used for scripting FBML (Facebook Markup Language) gadgets.
  • Jacaranda Static verifier supporting object-capabilities.
  • Microsoft Web Sandbox Technology preview of securing web content through isolation.
  • Gatekeeper Microsoft Research project.
  • Dojo Secure Framework for building secure mashups.
  • Local.js uses Web Workers to sandbox applications and a RESTful messaging protocol called HTTPL (HTTP Local) to communicate between them
Static typing
  • Some of the ones listed below are also statically typed, such as mobl, GWT, JSIL, NS Basic, and Haxe.
  • Dart by Google. C/Java-like syntax with optional typing.
  • TypeScript by Microsoft. Typed superset of JavaScript.
  • TeJaS from Brown PLT. Types for JavaScript (itself).
  • asm.js – subset of JavaScript that can be used as a low-level, efficient target language for compilers. Now included in Firefox.
  • JavaScript++ JavaScript superset with classes, type checking, among other features
  • MileScript [commercial] A strongly-typed language similar to C# and Java, but which compiles to JS. free for non-profit, educational use.
  • Mascara [commercial] Enhances JavaScript with powerful features like classes, namespaces and type-checking.
  • Roy tries to meld JavaScript semantics with some features common in static functional languages
  • Elm type-safe functional language that compiles to HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
  • Swym – statically typed, with type inference and generics
  • Typecast.js – JavaScript platform for statically typed variables without a custom compiler.
  • PureScript – a small, strongly typed programming language that compiles to JavaScript, featuring extensible records and effects, and type classes.
  • AtScript by Google – project to improve JavaScript by adding type annotations and other features on top of TypeScript. Now defunct, will be merged into Microsoft's TypeScript.
  • Flow by Facebook - static type checker for JavaScript, supports optional types and null checks
Synchronous to Asynchronous JavaScript Compilers (CPS)
  • Streamline.js Uses underscore (_) to stand for callbacks. This fork preserves line numbers for debugging.
  • mobl The new language for programming the mobile web.
  • StratifiedJS JavaScript + structured concurrency.
  • NarrativeJS JavaScript extension with asynchronous futures and promises.
  • jwacs JavaScript With Advanced Continuation Support.
  • Wind.js Wind.js is an advanced library which enable us to control flow with plain JavaScript for asynchronous programming (and more) without additional pre-compiling steps.
  • TameJS adds new keywords 'await' and 'defer'
  • Continuation.js A lightweight JIT compiler for simplifying asynchronous JavaScript programming with no runtime dependences. It supports both Node.js and browser-side JavaScript and is compatible with CoffeeScript (also TypeScript, and any other scripts compile to js).
  • Kal makes asynchronous programming easy and clean by allowing functions to pause and wait for I/O, replacing an awkward callback syntax with a clean, simple syntax
  • JSPipe provides JavaScript primitives to write async code without callbacks or chained functions. Inspired by Goroutines and Channels found in Go and in Clojure. For Web and NodeJS. ES5 and ES6.
  • promiseLand promiseLand is a very promising Language. It includes ES5 strict mode, uses the * dereferencing operator to access promise results and introduces additional features designed to let you focus on your program logic. Such as dynamic typesafety, frame addressing, generic load and safe features.
JavaScript Language Extensions
  • ContextJS is an implementation of Context-oriented Programming for JavaScript.
  • Objective-J Shares with JavaScript the same relationship that Objective-C has with the C programming language: that of being a strict, but small, superset.
  • Mochiscript Object-oriented JavaScript with syntactic sugar. Released as a Ruby gem.
  • jangaroo AS3 (ActionScript) to JavaScript.
  • Flapjax Event-driven, reactive evaluation.
  • jLang adds object oriented syntax, namespaces, operators overriding
  • Restrict Mode
  • TIScript gentle extension of JavaScript
  • Six 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.
  • js-- JavaScript subset for interactive/visual programming.
  • Latte JS Superset of JavaScript (eventually ES6), with similar goals to CoffeeScript, but keeping JS syntax.
  • JSX by Facebook - a superset to add an XML-like syntax to represent HTML elements in React.
  • oj Objective-C inspired superset of JavaScript with a tiny runtime, built-in obfuscator, and experimental type checker (courtesy of Typescript).

Ruby

  • Opal Ruby to JavaScript compiler.
  • HotRuby Runs opcode, compiled by YARV on Ruby inside a web browser or in Flash.
  • ColdRuby Compiler of Ruby 1.9 MRI bytecode, and a runtime written in JavaScript to aid in execution of Ruby code.
  • rb2js Converts Ruby to JavaScript.
  • RubyJS A successor to rb2js
  • Red Writes like Ruby and runs like JavaScript
  • Quby Used for game coding site, open source.
  • 8ball Ruby-to-JavaScript source-to-source transformer
  • Ruby2JS Minimal yet extensible Ruby to JavaScript conversion.

Python

  • PYXC-PJ [CS friend] Python to JS. Can generate a (line/col)-number mappings file.
  • Pyjamas Python to JS.
  • Pyjaco Python to JavaScript compiler with module support.
  • Pyjs Python to (readable) JS.
  • Skulpt Python. Client side.
  • PyCow Python to MooTools JS.
  • PyvaScript Python-like syntax to JavaScript.
  • RapydScript JavaScript with a Pythonic syntax.
  • Bulbul Python3 to JavaScript/ES6/ES7 compiler. Apparently the only Python-to-JS compiler intended to provide support for AngularJS, React, Aurelia and other modern JS libs.
  • Brython browser python
  • PythonScript Python-like compiled to JavaScript
  • pythonscript Python compiled to readable JavaScript using the AST. (proof of concept)
  • Rusthon Integrates several python to js methods into one project. Very Active. Not only for JS & Py, but also Go, C, Nim, etc.
  • PyPyJS PyPy. Compiled into JavaScript using Emscripten. JIT-compiling to JavaScript at runtime.

Erlang

  • Shen is the first and yet smallest Erlang JavaScript Compiler based on Erlang AST. It allows you to translate Elixir, Joxa, Lol and Erlang programs to JavaScript with erlc. JavaScript/OTP subset. Has node npm package called erlang-shen-js.
  • LuvvieScript a browser-based dom-scripting language that is a strict sub-set of Erlang which is AST-to-AST transpiled to JavaScript (code )

Perl

  • Perlito Project to compile Perl 5/6 to JavaScript, Ruby, SBCL, and Go.

Java/JVM

  • GWT Google Web Toolkit, compiles Java to JavaScript.
  • Java2Script Eclipse Java to JavaScript compiler plugin and JavaScript version of SWT.
  • j2js Java bytecode to JavaScript.
  • Strongly-Typed JavaScript (STJS) – JavaScript code generator from Java source. It is built as a Maven plugin.
  • BicaJVM JavaScript implementation of JVM.
  • Doppio JVM interpreter on CoffeeScript.
  • Processing, a Java-based visualization language that interprets to JavaScript.
  • Kotlin Statically typed programming language targeting the JVM and JavaScript.
  • Ceylon a modular static-typed JVM language compilable to JavaScript.
  • GrooScript a framework to convert Groovy code to JavaScript.
  • node-jvm java virtual machine in pure node.js
  • Bck2Brwsr Run "browserified" Java Code in, well, the browser.
  • QWT QWT consists of a Java-to-JavaScript compiler, a prepared library of Qooxdoo componente (version 0.7.x) and some other tools. Similar to GWT
  • TeaVM is an ahead-of-time transpiler that takes JVM bytecode and produces JavaScript.
  • Dragome SDK compiles JVM bytecode to Javascript.

Scala

  • Scala.js the official Scala to JavaScript compiler
  • js-scala JavaScript as an embedded DSL in Scala
  • scalagwt enhanced GWT (accepts jribble as well as Java) plus Scala to jribble.
  • JScala Scala macro that produces JavaScript from Scala code.

C#, F#, .NET related languages

  • jsc [experimental] Recompile your .NET assembly to JavaScript, ActionScript, PHP or Java.
  • JSIL MSIL (.NET bytecode) to JavaScript
  • Script# Compiles C# to JS.
  • CilJs Translates CIL/MSIL (.NET bytecode) (C#) to JavaScript
  • Prefix in development
  • Blade Visual Studio add-on for converting C# to JavaScript
  • SharpKit C# to JavaScript Cross-Compiler
  • Saltarelle C# to JavaScript Compiler. Saltarelle is now part of Bridge.NET.
  • FunScript F# to JavaScript compiler with JQuery etc. mappings through a TypeScript type provider
  • Pit F# to JavaScript compiler
  • WebSharper Lets you compile F# to JS.
  • NemerleWeb Nemerle language compiled to JS.
  • Blue Storm F# to JavaScript (and some other languages).
  • JScriptSuite .NET to JavaScript compiler (cross browser API, client site controls and components).
  • DotNetWebToolkit Toolkit providing a .NET CIL to JavaScript transcoder and Visual Studio project/debugging integration
  • Netjs .NET to TypeScript and JavaScript compiler. It uses multiple stages to produce JavaScript for your web apps.
  • WootzJs C# to Javascript cross-compiler built on top of Microsoft Roslyn, which handles the complex process of converting your C# code into syntax trees with symbol information
  • DuoCode C#-to-JavaScript compiler powered by Microsoft Roslyn
  • Bridge.NET - Open Source C#-to-JavaScript compiler. Includes jQuery + many other frameworks. Developed and well supported by a professional team.

Lisp, Scheme

Clojure-like
  • ClojureScript Clojure to JS, the official version. Supports the majority of Clojure including persistent datastructures.
  • ClojureJS Subset of Clojure to JS.
  • Chlorinejs A fork of ClojureJS with a port of clojure.core library.
  • wisp A homoiconic JavaScript dialect with Clojure syntax, S-expressions and macros. Aims to be rich subset of Clojure(Script) that seamlessly interops with both Clojure(Script) and JavaScript.
  • Scriptjure Library for generating JavaScript from Clojure forms.
  • ki Clojure-like syntax, mori's immutable data structures in a few sweet.js macros. Can be intermixed with JavaScript.
Scheme-like
  • BiwaScheme Scheme(R6RS) in JavaScript
  • Fargo Scheme in JavaScript
  • Moby Scheme A Scheme running in JS.
  • nconc Scheme interpreter in JavaScript with stack-friendly tail calls and full call/cc
  • scheme2js Scheme to JavaScript.
  • Spock A Scheme to JavaScript compiler that uses Henry Baker's Cheney-on-the-MTA compilation strategy
  • Whalesong Racket to JS compiler
Other
  • eslisp An S-expression syntax for ECMAScript/JavaScript, with Lisp-like hygienic macros that are just JS functions. Aims to be very close to JS, and highly experimental.
  • EdgeLisp A Lisp in the tradition of Common Lisp
  • Parenscript Subset of Common Lisp to JS.
  • Ralph Lisp-1 dialect that compiles to JavaScript, inspired by Dylan
  • Oppo A JavaScripter’s lisp. Inspired by JavaScript, Clojure and CoffeeScript. Compiler built using Jison.
  • LispyScript A JavaScript with Lispy syntax and Macros.
  • Outlet A simple Lisp that supports CPS and in-browser stepping debugging, and other things. In development.
  • Hot Cocoa Lisp A Lisp-like language that compiles to JavaScript.
  • Sibilant JavaScript with a lisp.
  • jisp A JS-native and axiomatic Lisp that focuses on the core ideas of code-as-data, S-expressions, and macros, introducing as few new concepts as possible.

OCaml

Haskell

  • UHC (Utrecht Haskell Compiler) backend converts UHC core to JavaScript, allowing the compiling of Haskell code to JS.
  • ghcjs Compile normal Haskell into JS
  • jmacro Quasi-Quoted JS that you can insert Haskell values into (there is also shakespeare-js for that purpose), but also supports a more Haskellish syntactic version of JavaScript.
  • [[https://github.com/aculich/lambdascript|]] Compile a subset of Haskell into JS
  • YHC (York Haskell Compiler) backend, as above but with YHC core language.
  • jshaskell
  • haste
  • fay A proper subset of Haskell that compiles to JavaScript
  • forml A contemporary programming language intended to approximate the safety of Haskell and the expressiveness of Ruby.

Smalltalk

  • Amber – formerly known as Jtalk
  • Clamato a Smalltalk dialect that is designed to operate within the JavaScript runtime.
  • Silver Smalltalk [commercial?] Smalltalk in the browser. (Still active?)
  • Lively Kernel – smalltalk/squeak-like development environment in the browser. See also Avocado, built on top of it.
  • Little Smallscript Little Smalltalk to JavaScript translator.
  • SqueakJS Squeak VM in Javascript

C/C++

  • Emscripten LLVM to JavaScript compiler. LLVM is "an aggressive open-source compiler for C and C++," as well as other languages.
  • Cheerp (formerly Duetto) “compiles C++ applications to binary code and JavaScript. Based and integrated into the LLVM/clang infrastructure”
  • maja vala (gobject) to JavaScript
  • Clue C language compiler to different runtimes (Lua, JS, Perl 5, C, Java, CL).
  • LLJS typed dialect of JavaScript that offers a C-like type system with manual memory management
  • Mandreel Can convert C++ and Objective-C applications based on OpenGL ES to JavaScript or Action Script 3 web application.
  • Bonsai-C Convert C code to asm.js

Basic

  • NS Basic/App Studio [commercial] Visual Basic-style BASIC to JavaScript compiler. Includes IDE. Targets iOS and Android
  • qb.js An implementation of QBASIC in JavaScript
  • Spiderbasic [commercial] SpiderBasic is new web client-side programming language based on established BASIC rules. Its main purpose is to allow development of very complex, windowed based web applications. It provides a large commandset to handle complex and reactive GUI, 2D games, and many more in a coherent manner.

Pascal

  • Smart Mobile Studio [commercial] Object Pascal to JavaScript compiler and Delphi like IDE that brings classes, inheritance, interfaces and more to JavaScript
  • Elevate Web Builder [commercial] Visual development tool for web applications that compiles standard Object Pascal source code into JavaScript

Go

  • Go2js Line-to-line translator from Go to JavaScript.
  • GopherJS A transpiler from Go to JavaScript.
  • TARDISgo Compile Golang to Haxe (then on to JavaScript, Flash, Java, C++, C#, PHP, Python & Neko)

Multitarget

  • Haxe compiles to several platforms (C++, Flash, JS, Neko, PHP, Java, C#, Python).
  • Fantom Evolutionary object-oriented language emphasizing succinct and effective APIs (JVM, CLR, JS).
  • LZX (Laszlo XML) LZX is OpenLaszlo's declarative user interface language, which is compiled into JavaScript 2 as an intermediary format, and further compiled into either JavaScript 1.5 or ActionScript 3.
  • Clue and jsc above target multiple runtimes in addition to JavaScript
  • Nim compiles to C, C++ and JavaScript
  • Monkey [commercial] compiles to several platforms (JavaScript, ActionScript 3, C++, Java, CSharp).
  • defrac compiles Java bytecode to several platforms (including JavaScript)
  • Ć Programming Language is automatically translated to C, Java, C#, JavaScript, ActionScript, Perl and D.

Tierless languages (produce both client & server)

  • Fun A programming language for realtime webapps – compiles to client-side and server-side JS.
  • Ur In the tradition of ML and Haskell.
  • mobl The new language for programming the mobile web.
  • E Compiles E to JS. E is a secure distributed persistent pure object language.
  • Sugar new programming language designed to replace JavaScript for client-side (and server-side) web development
  • Opa write your complete application in just one language, and the compiler will transform it into a self-sufficient executable
  • STIP.js Slicing Tierless Programs in JavaScript

Visual programming tools

  • Waterbear Tool for making Scratch-inspired block-based languages on the web. Examples include blocks for JavaScript, ProcessingJS, NodeJS, and more.
  • Snap – JavaScript of BYOB, which is a fork of Scratch
  • ScriptBlocks
  • Illumination [Commercial] Visual, cross-platform tool creates apps for Android, iPhone, iPad, Desktops and HTML5 or Flash websites. The I language underlies the tool.
  • JsMaker visual JavaScript programming
  • Meemoo flow-based visual programming framework for hackable web apps
  • NoFlo JavaScript implementation of Flow-Based Programming. Programs (network graphs) can be visually created with DrawFBP
  • Blockly web-based, graphical programming language. Users can drag blocks together to build an application
  • Maeda Block – visual game programming language powered by enchant.js and Google Blockly. See also the Japanese version.

SQL

PHP

  • phype run PHP code directly in your browser
  • uniter run PHP code in Node.js or the browser
  • php.js PHP VM with JavaScript, allow to run PHP code in Node.js or the browser

Others

  • Oia A port of Io to JavaScript.
  • Plaid A gradually-typed, typestate-oriented language designed as a better Java.
  • Quixe a Glulx VM interpreter written in JavaScript
  • Gnusto a Z-Machine VM interpreter written in JavaScript
  • Logo Interpreter
  • p2js Perl to JavaScript converter
  • Reb2Static Rebol to JavaScript
  • RPN Interpreter for a language with a Reverse Polish Notation syntax.
  • jsForth
  • wForth
  • Agda a dependently typed functional programming language and mechanized proof assistant
  • XLCC Interpret LCC into JavaScript on node
  • SMLtoJs SML to JavaScript compiler
  • lua.js Lua parser
  • Brozula Lua bytecode interpreter
  • Pygmy a dynamic language that compiles to JavaScript designed to be readable but concise enough to be competitive in code golf.
  • browserl An Erlang Emulator written in JavaScript
  • ErlyJS JavaScript to Erlang compiler
  • Topaz Rebol inspired language on top of JavaScript
  • NGN APL an APL-to-JavaScript compiler written in CoffeeScript
  • CobolScript COBOL language compiler to JavaScript.
  • Idris Dependently typed functional language with a JavaScript backend.
  • Dogescript JavaScript for the moon; so syntax very doge much future.
  • Wortel J/APL inspired language with Polish Notation, compiles to JavaScript.
  • JEnglish interprets regular English statements into HTML/CSS
  • Jotlin a small programming language in Kotlin
  • uilang and uiscript simple UI-focused script languages for web designers
  • Hodor - Hodor programming language
  • Mason

Tools for Compiler Writers

JavaScript Parsers and Extensions

JavaScript Optimizers
JavaScript Parser Generators
  • jison Bison in JavaScript, used by CoffeeScript
  • nearley A fast, lightweight Earley parser generator
  • OMeta/JS (source) metacompiler for many languages to many targets, including js.
  • PEG.js parser generator for JavaScript based on the parsing expression grammar formalism
  • languagejs – PEG parser written in JavaScript with first class errors
  • Canopy Self-hosting PEG parser compiler for JavaScript, influenced by Ruby parser generators such as Treetop and Citrus
  • JS/CC LALR(1) parser generator
  • jsparse PEG by Grandmaster Chris Double
  • ReParse parser combinator library for JavaScript like Haskell's Parsec
  • p4js Monadic parser library for JavaScript
  • JSGLR Scannerless, Generalized Left-to-right Rightmost (SGLR) derivation parser for JavaScript
  • ANTLR 3 has a JavaScript target. ANTLR 4 has not implemented its JavaScript target yet.
  • Cruiser.Parse LL(k) parser
  • MetaCoffee PEG parser using CoffeeScript and white-space-significant syntax
  • Bennu Parsec inspired Javascript parser combinator library.
JavaScript AST, Semantics
Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment