JavaScript for Arduino

Question

I came up with the idea of building a JS compiler for AVR (the architecture of the Arduino microcontrollers), since JS is getting more and more popular.

At first I thought that I should check out V8 engine and see if I can make it generate AVR machine code. What I found out was that V8 is a JIT compiler/interpreter.

I am currently thinking of writing a new compiler from the ground up, since modifying V8 could be a lot of trouble. I believe that, even if I could make it generate binaries Ahead Of Time, it would still be difficult to customize it for such an architecture.

Do you guys think that I should give V8 a try or go ahead and write a new compiler?

Answer 1

You can't write a javascript compiler alone, it's just infeasible.

But what I do know is that javascript-on-microcontrollers has been done before, check out the Espruino!

Answer 2

I found a thread about the reasons for which making a JS compiler is a pain.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10228904

Answer 3

Schindlabua I just checked out Espruino. It uses an interpreter, instead of a compiler, and it doesn't support Arduino boards.

Seems like JS is very complex to get compiled AOT 😅

Answer 4

You can use cylon.js module
https://cylonjs.com

Answer 5

magad I will definitely give this a try