[puls]

When I read

> This means when you install Babel it will no longer transpile your ES2015 code by default.

what I really see is "This means that Babel no longer works out of the box and is now harder to use."

Was any thought given to how much additional complexity this adds to what was previously (https://babeljs.io/docs/setup/#babel_cli) a very simple way to get started?

[thejameskyle]

Keep reading the blog post, we introduced presets for this very reason. It not hard to setup at all.

[coldtea]

To quote Jamie Jawinsky (Jwz):

>You have invoked the "Oh, but there's a setting to turn off that stupid behavior" defense. I am showering you with negativity.

[thejameskyle]

You must really enjoy going through threads to say the same negative thing over and over. This is exactly why I can't stand Hacker News.

[coldtea]

I've posted two comments discussing default behavior. Too many ("over and over")? And I can see several others raising the same issue in this very thread -- all wrong to focus on that issue?

My main concern was raised in the longer thread with you. It is negative because I don't see this as a positive move. Nobody explained why changing the default behavior is a good move (even if it's easy to add back), or what it has to do with a desire for modular internals (since those don't preclude that).

In any case, Babel has been a valuable tool and I really hope this direction comes out for the best.

[arrakeen]

i think it's entirely ridiculous it will do nothing unless you specify a preset. a default preset is likely what most users would expect

[thejameskyle]

Meh, that's becoming less and less true. We're definitely never going to do that again.

[k__]

Not too hard, but still harder than before.

[thejameskyle]

The positives outweigh the 37 extra keystrokes you have to make to do the exact same thing as before.

[puls]

What was the downside to doing the same thing as before by default?

[thejameskyle]

There's a pretty lengthy discussion about it here https://github.com/babel/babel/issues/2168

I may do a followup blog post about it.

[coldtea]

Backwards compatibility? Keeping with users expectations? Sensible defaults? Where's the fun in that?