@babel/plugin-proposal-private-methods

What is @babel/plugin-proposal-private-methods?

The @babel/plugin-proposal-private-methods package is a Babel plugin that allows developers to use the private methods and accessors proposal in JavaScript classes. This proposal is part of the ECMAScript (ES) standardization process and introduces a way to define private methods and getter/setter functions in a class, which are only accessible within the class itself.

What are @babel/plugin-proposal-private-methods's main functionalities?

Private Methods

This feature allows the definition of methods in a class that are not accessible from outside the class. The hash (#) prefix indicates that the method is private.

class MyClass {
  #privateMethod() {
    return 'Hello from private method';
  }

  publicMethod() {
    return this.#privateMethod();
  }
}

Private Accessors

This feature allows the definition of private getter and setter functions in a class, which can be used to control access to private fields.

class MyClass {
  #privateField = 'private value';

  get #privateAccessor() {
    return this.#privateField;
  }

  set #privateAccessor(newValue) {
    this.#privateField = newValue;
  }

  publicMethod() {
    return this.#privateAccessor;
  }
}

Other packages similar to @babel/plugin-proposal-private-methods

@babel/plugin-proposal-class-properties

This package allows developers to use the class properties proposal, which includes static and instance properties. It is similar to @babel/plugin-proposal-private-methods but does not specifically deal with private methods or accessors.

@babel/plugin-proposal-decorators

This package provides support for decorators, which are a stage 2 proposal for JavaScript. Decorators can be used to annotate and modify classes and properties at design time. While decorators can be used to mimic some aspects of private methods, they are not the same as the private methods proposal.

README

@babel/plugin-proposal-private-methods

This plugin transforms private class methods

See our website @babel/plugin-proposal-private-methods for more information.

Install

Using npm:

npm install --save-dev @babel/plugin-proposal-private-methods

or using yarn:

yarn add @babel/plugin-proposal-private-methods --dev