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Comment by belmarca | Hacker News Reader

I clicked on this hoping for an actual compiler. However from what I can see this is a bundler. The name is confusing.

Thanks for the feedback! You're right - Astra is technically a bundler-to-executable tool, not a source-level compiler like Babel or TypeScript.

I called it a “compiler” in the sense that it transforms a JS project into a standalone .exe, similar to how tools like pkg or nexe are often described. That said, I’ll consider clarifying that in the description to avoid confusion. Appreciate the comment!

Honestly, I would drop calling compiler altogether -- it's just not a compiler. It doesn't make it any less cool though!

yeah it's not but i don't know how to call it. if i say it's bundler it will be more confusing in my opinion. waiting for your suggestions!

Sometimes the term "packager" is used instead of "bundler". Honestly though, "compiler" is the term most likely to cause any confusion. Even if one is not familiar with packagers/bundlers "js to exe ${unknown phrase}" still conveys things more clearly than "js to exe ${misleading phrase}".

But it's definitely not a compiler! I think "Astra - a new js2exe bundler" is much less ambiguous because it's... a bundler!

https://astra-js.netlify.app/cli/faq/#thats-not-a-compiler-t...

Blame bun's --compile flag: https://bun.sh/docs/bundler/executables

We're probably going to have to live with "compiler" meaning "bundler" as an ongoing JavaScript-world neologism.

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