title: How can I set the default target es version for the typescript compiler (tsc)?
body: <p>I've spent a lot of the last 24hrs learning:</p>
  <ul>
  <li>how Visual Studio Code works</li>
  <li>how TypeScript works</li>
  <li>how the TypeScript Compiler (<code>tsc</code>) works</li>
  <li>how these three pieces of software all fit together</li>
  </ul>
  <p>In less than a day (!) I finally succeeded in writing some basic TypeScript and compiling it to Javascript.</p>
  <p>My ecstasy was a little muted when I discovered that the TypeScript Compiler (<code>tsc</code>) had not only compiled the static type labels, but had also <em>transpiled</em>:</p>
  <ul>
  <li><code>const</code></li>
  </ul>
  <p>into:</p>
  <ul>
  <li><code>var</code></li>
  </ul>
  <p>I say <em>muted</em>, but actually I was <em>mildly horrified</em>.</p>
  <p>Then I discovered that the default transpilation target for <code>tsc</code> is <strong>ECMAScript 3</strong>.</p>
  <p>It turns out, I can keep my <code>const</code> declarations constant, by invoking <code>tsc</code> with a <code>--target</code> flag:</p>
  <pre><code>tsc my-first-typescript.ts --target es6
  </code></pre>
  <p>However. I really don't want to keep writing <code>--target es6</code> (or <code>--target es11</code>) every time I invoke <code>tsc</code>.</p>
  <p>Is there any way I can set the default transpilation target version for <code>tsc</code> so that it doesn't automatically assume I want javascript like it's 1999?</p>