Pokitto Games in JavaScript

Pokitto Programming
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#1

With the demise of PyInSky we were left without a good beginner-level language/environment.

So here’s a new one.

MicoJS Online IDE

Quick Intro:

  • Generates native code, no VM/interpretor
  • Based on Monaco (VSCode’s editor)
  • Your sourcecode is stored in your browser but can be exported as a zip file
  • Aims for full JS language compatibility, not API/library compatibility
  • New full-res 8-bit graphics engine with sprite zoom/rotation/recoloring support
  • Built-in simulator runs well even on very slow devices
  • Games are platform-independent by default
  • Wiki documenting both the API and language
  • Autocomplete with documentation
  • Built-in asset conversion. Drag-and-drop an image into the file list and it’s ready
  • Uses version 2 of the general palette (palette.pal), based on this paper.
  • Not Pine2K compatible. This is meant to be actual JavaScript, while Pine2K is a JS-like low-level language (PINE stands for Pine Is Not Ecmascript, after all).

Planned Features

  • Import zipped project Done :white_check_mark:
  • Project sharing between multiple users/browsers
  • More UI polish
  • Audio support
  • Tilemap support
  • Hotspot profiling (partially implemented already)
  • Built-in image editor
  • More JS language support (see wiki for up-to-date list of what’s missing)
  • Export game as a single HTML file for sharing
  • Debug builds that tell you where/why a crash happened on hardware without a debugger
9 Likes
Web IDE - where did it go?
#2

Sprite zooming and rotating is great!

This language/env could be also a nice intro for kids to programming and web technologies.

Should we have a game jam when the system is mature enough?

2 Likes
#3

Got 404 when pressed the link…

1 Like
#4

Argh, typo. Fixed it. Thanks! :sweat_smile:

2 Likes
#5

Awesome new toy!
Will Monaco allow support also Goto Definition and global search and replace across multiple files?

#6

I’m not sure, I’m still figuring out how things work in Monaco. It does support go-to for definitions in the same file, and it knows about things declared in other files if they’re open, so it’s 90% of the way there.

3 Likes
#7

Latest changes:

  • Zipped project import (drag-and-drop a zip into the file tree)
  • Automatically clear debug log when starting the simulator
  • Ctrl+Enter (or Cmd+Enter on Mac) shortcut to start the simulator
  • Ctrl+S no longer tries to save the IDE as an HTML page
  • 32Blit support
6 Likes
#8

Just a small update today:

  • Fixed bug in browser version of vectorLength function
  • Added PI / HALF_PI / TWO_PI
4 Likes
#9

Another small update:

  • Fixed a bug where use of null would generate invalid code
  • Fixed a bug when comparing someString != otherString
  • Added getTime function
4 Likes
#10

I’ve tried some builds with very minor modifications to the default template, and when I test in the gamebuino emulator and as a pokitto binary (running on hardware) I frequently get crashes when the little color wheel ball bounces (sometimes earlier). It looks like the crashes go away if I take out my print line, which looks like this:

text("Hello world! " + getWidth() + " " + getHeight(), 5, 5);

So… Maybe some bug somewhere in string concatenation? Or somewhere in a number to string cast?

2 Likes
#11

Thanks for the bug report. Fixed it. Turns out strings weren’t triggering the garbage collector.

3 Likes
#12
  • PicoSystem support
  • Fixed bug in 32Blit input
  • Added support for game metadata (title, author, description, version). Need to package Pokitto games into pop files next.
3 Likes