#babel-plugin-which-builtins

This is a Babel plugin which attempts to determine which ECMAScript 2015/2016/2017 library built-ins are used by a codebase and only import polyfills for just the built-ins which are actually used. It is a replacement for importing the entirety of babel-polyfill.

##Instructions

First install the plugin to your project, along with core-js and regenerator-runtime:

npm install --save-dev babel-plugin-which-builtins core-js regenerator-runtime

Next add it to your Babel configuration after all the plugins that transform your code. For example, in a .babelrc file:

1{
2  "plugins": { "which-builtins" }
3}

##What does it do?

When this plugin encounters code that seems to use new built-in JavaScript global objects, static methods, or instance methods, it adds an import declaration for a polyfill that will add that built-in. For example, with this input:

const foo = Array.from([1,2,3]);

the plugin will produce this output:

import "core-js/modules/es6.array.from"
import "core-js/modules/es6.array.iterator"
const foo = Array.from([1,2,3]);

Note that this transformer does not insert the polyfill itself; it just adds an import statement for the polyfill. If you want to run this code in a browser, you will need to run it through a bundler like webpack, browserify, or rollup.

In additon to the ECMAScript polyfills of core-js, the plugin also looks for and polyfills references to regeneratorRuntime, which are created by the standard Babel plugin for transforming generators.

##When does the plugin fail?

Unfortunately, in a completely dynamic language like JavaScript, static analysis can only go so far, and as a result babel-plugin-which-builtins cannot catch every usage of new built-ins. There are two main known cases where the plugin will fail.

The first case in which the plugin will fail is when code refers to one of the built-in globals that has new methods (like Math or Array) using dynamic code to refer to the global object. As an example:

// this case will work.
var a = Math.cos(90);
var { cos } = Math;

// this case will not work because Math doesn't have a direct
// property access in the code.
function getMath() { return Math; }
var b = getMath().cos(90);
var { cos } = getMath();

The second case in which the plugin will fail is when code refers to a new built-in static or instance method in a dynamic way. For example:

// these cases will work.
var a = "foo".startsWith("f");
var b = "foo"["startsWith"]("f");
var { startsWith } = "foo";
var c = Math.cos(90);
var d = Math["cos"](90);
var { cos } = Math;

// these cases will not work.
var e = "foo"["starts" + "With"]("f");
var { ["starts" + "With"]: f } = "foo";
var g = "startsWith".forEach(method => "foo"[method]("f"))[0];
var h = Math["c" + "os"](90);
var { ["c" + "os"]: i } = Math;
function getCos() {
  return "cos";
}
var j = Math[getCos()](90);
var { [getCos()]: k } = Math;

##Instance methods may produce false positives

Some of the new built-ins in ES2015/2016/2017 are instance methods, like Array.prototype.find or String.prototype.startsWith. It's very difficult (bordering on impossible) to statically figure out the type of a variable in JavaScript, so this plugin is conservative and assumes that any reference to a property with the same name of a new instance method is a reference to that instance method. For example:

// this triggers an import of String.prototype.startsWith.
var a = "foo".startsWith("f");
var { startsWith } = "foo";

// this also triggers an import of String.prototype.startsWith (false positive).
var b = null;
var c = b.startsWith("f");
var { startsWith } = b;

// this also triggers an import of String.prototype.startsWith (false positive).
var e = b["startsWith"];

The theory here is that including an instance method polyfill when it's not needed is better than not including it when it is needed.

#What features are polyfilled?

• Generators
• regeneratorRuntime
• Global objects
• DataView
• Int8Array
• Uint8Array
• Uint8ClampedArray
• Int16Array
• Uint16Array
• Int32Array
• Uint32Array
• Float32Array
• Float64Array
• Map
• Set
• WeakMap
• WeakSet
• Promise
• Symbol
• Reflect
• Static methods
• Array.from
• Array.of
• Math.acosh
• Math.asinh
• Math.atanh
• Math.cbrt
• Math.clz32
• Math.cosh
• Math.expm1
• Math.fround
• Math.hypot
• Math.imul
• Math.log1p
• Math.log10
• Math.log2
• Math.sign
• Math.sinh
• Math.tanh
• Math.trunc
• Number.isFinite
• Number.isInteger
• Number.isSafeInteger
• Number.isNaN
• Number.EPSILON
• Number.MIN_SAFE_INTEGER
• Number.MAX_SAFE_INTEGER
• Object.assign
• Object.is
• Object.getOwnPropertySymbols
• Object.setPrototypeOf
• Object.values
• Object.entries
• Object.getOwnPropertyDescriptors
• String.raw
• Instance methods
• Array.prototype.copyWithin
• Array.prototype.find
• Array.prototype.findIndex
• Array.prototype.fill
• Array.prototype.includes
• Function.prototype.name
• RegExp.prototype.flags
• RegExp.prototype.match
• RegExp.prototype.replace
• RegExp.prototype.split
• RegExp.prototype.search
• String.prototype.codePointAt
• String.prototype.fromCodePoint
• String.prototype.padStart
• String.prototype.padEnd
• String.prototype.repeat
• String.prototype.startsWith
• String.prototype.endsWith
• String.prototype.includes