Remove Babel (once node.js and browsers support all features we use)

[taoeffect]

Problem

Babel is a bloated (but useful) monstrosity.

Solution

• See this for how to get rid of babel-register babel-runtime and slim down babel (Related to #41?)
  • babel-register is currently needed to run the backend via grunt dev. Those instructions are for getting rid of babel-runtime which is set in .babelrc
• No more need for two separate Gruntfiles! 🎉
• See major changes since 5.x
• See major changes since 6.x
• OTOH, don't get rid of too much stuff (or any of it?) for the frontend. It's OK to slim down babel for the backend, but for the generated frontend JS I think browsers still don't support most of this stuff.

See also: #41 — Don't use babel's transform-runtume to run backend in production

[sandrina-p]

I don't see this being possible any day because the core goal of Babel is to Use next generation JavaScript, today. So browsers will never catch up to current Babel features.

What do you think about closing this issue?

[taoeffect]

That assumes JS will always be updated with new features we need. I don’t think that’s necessarily the case so I’d like to keep this open. Also, it might be related to switching to Deno.

[sandrina-p]

Okay, let's leave this open then.