es6-research.markdown

1. What is ES6?

• Officially ECMAScript 6, it is the most recent build of syntax for JavaScript (ECMAScript is the 'proper' name for JavaScript).

2. What is Transpilation and how does it relate to ES6?

• A source-to-source compiler. With regard to ES6, a tool like Babel would allow you to write in ES6 and have the code compiled to ES5, for environments where ES6 might not yet be supported.

3. Looking at the ES6 features link below, discuss one update from ES5 and if it seems useful/superfluous.

• I had seen the new 'arrow' syntax but didn't have an understanding of it. In short, it is shorthand for function and is of particular use when a single-line function is being called. From the examples found here:

var bar = foo.map(function(x) { return x.length; });

becomes:

let bar = foo.map(x => x.length);

In addition to the function call no longer being spelled out explicitly with function, return is implicit.