Nicoló Ribaudo | Migrating Babel from CommonJS to ESM

CommonJS has been the go-to module system for Node.js for more than a decade, but the ecosystem is slowly moving to ECMAScript Modules. CommonJS and ESM have different features, and they are not fully compatible with each other: should existing libraries migrate to ESM? Should they keep using ESM forever? Are JavaScript tools ready for native ESM? Babel is one of the most used packages on npm, and we have been slowly working to move away from CommonJS. What obstacles have we found? How did we overcome them? What have we learned in the process? How do we ensure a smooth transition for our users?
About the speaker:
I’m a developer who loves open source and JavaScript. I work at Igalia, where I help push the web forward, and I maintain Babel - the JavaScript compiler. I’m also a TC39 delegate and I’ve helped developing different JavaScript proposals over the years. When offline, I’m a math student in Turin, Italy.