CoffeeScript 1.4.0 released

CoffeeScript creator Jeremy Ashkenas has announced the release of version 1.4.0 of his programming language that compiles into JavaScript. The first upgrade to the language since mid-May brings relatively few changes. Among them, the CoffeeScript compiler has been updated to allow developers to strip Microsoft's UTF-8 BOM (byte order mark) from source files before compiling them.

Ashkenas says that CoffeeScript 1.4.0 will be most useful to developers who have experienced compiler deprecation warnings in recent versions of Node.js as the update removes registerExtension and moves from path.exists to fs.exists. Other changes include fixes to splat compilation, problems with backticks and with slicing, as well as an error for duplicate keys in object literals.

Described as "a little language that compiles into JavaScript", CoffeeScript uses a syntax that allows elements such as functions and loops to be formulated in a more compact way. It also offers constructs for iterating via JavaScript objects. Similar to Python, it uses spaces to separate statements, but it is less strict than Python.

A change log for the new version, introduction and reference documentation for the language, installation instructions and a guide to resources can be found on the CoffeeScript web site. Released under the MIT licence, CoffeeScript 1.4.0 is available to download from the project's GitHub page and requires Node.js to run the compiler.

See also:

• Dropbox replaces JavaScript with CoffeeScript, a report from The H.

(crve)