In the previous release a file called latexhax.com was provided. This was needed to provide some macros normally defined by LATEX, to TEX users. The need for this file has been removed in the current release of the babel system.
In the previous release of the system, four different files were provided (all derived from hyphen.doc that were needed for different combinations of versions of TEX and plain.tex or lplain.tex. This has been changed. In the current version only two different files are derived from hyphen.doc. They are babel.switch and babel.hyphen. The file babel.switch is needed for people who can't build a new format or don't have TEX version 3. The file babel.hyphen should be loaded into the format by iniTEX. It provides the macros from babel.switch, but additionally it reads the file language.dat, which specifies the languages for which hyphenation patterns should be loaded.
In the previous release the file babel.com contained redefinitions for a lot of LATEX macros to replace texts with control sequences. This has been removed, because it is no longer necessary for releases of LATEX dated december 1991 or later. Those who still have an older release of LATEX can produce a special version of babel.com by including the docstrip option 〈:〉!:}names when stripping the file babel.doc.
With the release of the new version of Frank Mittelbach's doc package the stripped files are no longer distributed. The distribution of babel now includes a file install.babel with which you can produce them (give the command tex install.babel).