43. What's the difference between Babel and Webpack?

Babel and Webpack are two different tools used in the JavaScript ecosystem, each serving distinct purposes and functions.

Babel:

• Purpose: Babel is a JavaScript transpiler. Its main task is to transform modern JavaScript code (ES6+ and newer) into older ES5-compatible code that can run in older browsers.
• Functions: Transforming modern language features such as arrow functions, classes, destructuring, ES6 modules, etc., into older versions. Babel can also add polyfills for features not supported by older browsers.
• Example usage:

npm install --save-dev @babel/core @babel/preset-env

{
  "presets": ["@babel/preset-env"]
}

Webpack:

• Purpose: Webpack is a module bundler for JavaScript and other front-end assets. Its main task is bundling various modular files into one or more output files.
• Functions: Bundling JavaScript, CSS, HTML, and other assets, transforming code using loaders, optimizing assets, code splitting, managing dependencies.
• Example usage:

npm install --save-dev webpack webpack-cli

const path = require('path');

module.exports = {
  entry: './src/index.js',
  output: {
    filename: 'bundle.js',
    path: path.resolve(__dirname, 'dist')
  }
};

Summary:

• Babel focuses on transpiling modern JavaScript code to older versions of the language, while Webpack focuses on bundling various modular files into one package and managing front-end assets.
• They are often used together: Webpack can use Babel as a loader to transform JavaScript code before bundling it.