How can I run ES6 semicolumnless code in a windows 10 cmd window without babel?

Question

How can I run a short ES6 (Javascript) program without semicolons?

I have the following code in a jstry.js file

let v = 1
console.log(v)

I open a CMD window in windows 10, run it and get an error that a semicolon is expected. What can I change (without babel) so that this code is run OK?

Remark: I understand this is supposed to be supported in ES6, and that in actuality it was even supported before but... now comes some explanation that I don't really understand: until ES6 came along and then something (that I don't understand either) happened.

My path is:

PATH=C:\ProgramData\Oracle\Java\javapath;
C:\WINDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wbem;
C:\WINDOWS\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;
C:\Program Files C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Android\Sdk\tools;
C:\Program Files\nodejs\;
C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_172\bin;
C:\Program Files\Microsoft VSCode\bin;   
C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\npm;
C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Programs\Microsoft VSCode\bin;

So maybe running in the cmd window is invoking nodeJS? I'm running 8.11.1

Answer 1

Your code is perfectly valid in ES6 (note: there's no thing called ECMA6, it's ECMAScript 6 or abbreviated as ES6).

A problem might be that if you run this script by entering its filename only (not node filename ), that it is run by the Windows Script Host ( cscript.exe or wscript.exe ), which is the default way of running .js files on Windows; however, it doesn't support ES6.

To solve this issue, you have multiple ways:

• Always run scripts by prepending its filename by the name of the program, in this case, node , or
• Change the default program associated with the file extension .js to Node.js ( here 's how to do it)