Moddable SDK 5.3.0

Moddable SDK 5.3 contains improvements made between November 13, 2024 and December 3, 2024.

Camera Support for Raspberry Pi Pico

Last month brought the new ECMA-419 Image Input API to the Moddable SDK with implementations for ESP32, macOS, Windows, and Linux. This month extends that support to Raspberry Pi Pico.

High Speed JPEG Decoder for ESP32

We've integrated an all-new high performance JPEG decoder from Espressif for use across the entire family of ESP32 microcontrollers. The new decoder is up to 600% faster, making real-time JPEG decoding practical. To decode a single JPEG frame:

import loadJPEG from "commodetto/loadJPEG";
let bitmap = loadJPEG(new Resource("image.jpg"));

Because the pixel buffer can be quite large, it is convenient to be able to free it immediately rather than waiting for the garbage collector. Bitmaps returned by loadJPEG have a close() method on their pixel buffer that can be invoked to free the pixel buffer immediately:

bitmap.buffer.close();

To use the new JPEG decoder, include $MODDABLE/modules/commodetto/jpeg/manifest.json in your project manifest.

Integrating Git Repositories

It has long been possible to include Git repositories in Moddable SDK project manifests. The build automatically clones the repository, eliminating the need to retrieve it manually. This feature now works for repositories that do not include a Moddable SDK manifest.json file, allowing it to be used in more situations, such as retrieving native driver code for use in JavaScript bindings.

Your project manifest.json can embed the manifest for the imported repository to select the files to build and directories to add to the include path. You can use a local path to a repository which is great when developing. For details see the https://github.com/Moddable-OpenSource/moddable/blob/public/documentation/tools/manifest.md#include-git and check out the Pico hm01b0 camera driver for a working example.

ESP-IDF v5.3.1

We've migrated to ESP-IDF v5.3.1 to from v5.3.0. The update should be transparent to JavaScript code. The update is recommended for reliability and security, and to generally keep up with the latest from Espressif. Updating just takes a couple minutes.

• If you used xs-dev to install the Moddable SDK, execute xs-dev update --device esp32
• Otherwise, follow the update instructions for macOS and Linux and Windows.

Just after wrapping up this Moddable SDK release, ESP-IDF v5.3.2 was released. The Moddable SDK hasn't been tested with that, so it is not a recommended update yet.

Coming Soon: ECMAScript 2025

Behind the scenes, we've been working to update our XS JavaScript engine to support the next revision of the JavaScript language, ECMAScript 2025 (ES2025). With the last meeting in 2024 of TC39, the JavaScript language committee, complete the features for ES2025 are finalized. Moddable expects to release ES2025 support for XS in January 2025. The release will also implement the Immutable ArrayBuffers proposal, now at Stage 2, that Moddable is co-championing.

Community News

• Congratulations to Pocuter for the successful completion of their crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter for their incredible new Spectra, a maker-friendly smartwatch. A watch this beautiful could only be powered by the Moddable SDK.
• @ScreamZ has published a Wi-Fi Connection Manager implemented entirely in TypeScript. It provides a persistent Wi-Fi connection, reconnecting as needed.
• @HipsterBrown has been very active with xs-dev, deploying significant code updates and addressing several issues reported by users
• If you haven't yet read our  blog post about the "Language Evolution" proposal to improve user security by dividing JavaScript into two parts, check it out.

Release Details

• Devices
  • Raspberry Pi Pico
    • Ecma-419 Audio Out support
    • Ecma-419 Image In support for Arducam hm01b0 camera
    • New pico/pico4ml device target to demonstrate driver support for hm01b0 camera
  • ESP32
    • Fast JPEG decoder for ESP32 integrated. The implementation is the latest from Espressif via the ESP Component Registry. Performance is excellent – over 600% faster than picojoeg, which is optimized to minimize memory use rather than speed. It is mostly compatible with the Commodetto JPEG reader API.
    • ESP32 build asserts that CONFIG_FREERTOS_HZ is set to 1000 as required by Moddable SDK.
    • ESP-IDF now recommends v5.3.1
• Ecma-419
  • WebSocket client
    • Payloads of length 127 now properly transmitted
    • Eliminate occasional "would block" exceptions when using WebSocket over TLS
• Bluetooth
  • The manufacturerSpecific getter for received advertisements no longer returns data beyond the end of the field
• Tools
  • Git repository import in mcconfig and mcrun have been enhanced to work with repositories that do not contain a Moddable SDK manifest.json. See Including Git Respositories documentation for details. This capability is used for the Pico camera (Ecma-419 image-in) support to import the native camera driver from its Git repository.
• XS JavaScript engine
  • Overflows in Date parsing of integers sets date to NaN (improves conformance)
  • Object copy helper function checks meter when looping
• Testing
  • Ecma-419 Update (OTA) unit tests added

Contact Us

If you have questions or suggestions about anything here, please reach out:

• Start a new Discussion on our GitHub repository
• Drop by our Gitter to chat
• Contact us on Twitter / X at @moddabletech

Moddable SDK 5.2.0

Moddable SDK 5.2 contains improvements made between October 12, 2024 and November 12, 2024.

Highlights of this release include:

• Camera – all-new camera module with support for ESP32 and the simulator (macOS, Windows, and Linux)
• Support for devices with cameras from M5 Stack, Lilygo, and Seeed Studio
• New storage and flash modules - preview of features from forthcoming ECMA-419 3rd Edition. The storage module will replace the current Preferences module which is widely used in projects.

The JavaScript eco-system is abuzz with discussion about the "Language Evolution" proposal to increase the security and stability of JavaScript by dividing it into two parts. Moddable believes this is be good for the language and especially good for embedded JavaScript developers. Read our latest blog post for all the details.

We are very excited to bring camera support to the Moddable SDK. It is a natural fit with our focus on bringing a modern user experience to low-cost embedded products. As you would expect our camera integration is extremely lightweight, simple to use, and powerful. The camera input isn't limited to a rectangle on the screen. You can fully integrate the camera image into dynamic, animated user interfaces as our new "camera balls" example demonstrates. Read all about the new suite of camera examples and browse the source code here. The "camera balls" example works on macOS, Windows, and Linux with most cameras so you can try it out even before you have an ESP32 device with a camera.

The Moddable SDK now supports directly including ESP-IDF native components from the ESP Component Registry. This is how our new ESP32 camera support has been integrated. Check out our blog post Using the ESP Component Registry with the Moddable SDK to learn more.

Note: ESP-IDF v5.3.1 has been released. Our testing shows that it is compatible with Moddable SDK v5.2. The Moddable SDK will move to ESP-IDF v5.3.1 in the December 2024 release.

Release Details

• ECMA-419
  • Camera module available for ESP32, macOS, Windows, and Linux.
    • Implementation of the new ImageIn class, derived from the IO class patter
    • Returns uncompressed RGB565LE, uncompressed YUV422, and compressed JPEG images
    • Supports new buffer/disposable format to give JavaScript code direct access to camera driver's internal buffers, reducing memory use and improving performance by eliminating data copies
    • ESP32 implementation based on the ESP32 Camera Driver module from ESP Component Registry
    • Suite of new camera examples available
  • Flash module available for ESP32 and macOS
    • macOS simulator uses memory mapped file as backing store. Available partitions defined in configuration section of manifest
  • Storage module available for ESP32 and macOS
    • ESP32 implementation uses ESP-IDF nvs API for backing store
    • macOS implementation use CFPreferences API for backing store
  • Audio
    • Add audioType to options object of AudioIn and AudioOut constructor and as a read-only property of instances. Currently the only value defined is "LPCM" for linear PCM audio.
    • AudioIn onReadable callback receives second parameter indicating the number of readable samples (first argument remains number of readable bytes)
    • AudioOut onWritable callback receives second parameter indicating the maximum number of writable samples (first argument remains the maximum number of writable bytes)
  • HTTP server
    • Server instance implements port property to allow use of ephemeral ports
    • If content-length not specified for response body and not chunked transfer encoding, the length is indeterminate. Previously incorrectly handled as length of 0 causing connection to drop prematurely.
    • Byte count passed to onWritable callback pins to bytes known to be remaining in response body
  • Network sockets
    • Listener and TCP sockets on Windows correctly sets non-blocking mode #1428
    • TCP socket on Linux and Windows
      • Calls onError when remote endpoint cleanly disconnects #1430
      • Correctly adjust reference count in close() to account for inflight callbacks. Eliminates orphaned socket. #1430
  • Analog input on ESP32 supports MCU-specific options to set attenuation and disable calibration. Details in new readme. Reported by @takkaO) #1431
  • SMBus writeBuffer() method handles views correctly
  • Add support for buffer/disposable format
  • Add minimal implementation of axp2101 driver using ECMA-419 I²C
• Devices
  • M5 Stack CoreS3
    • Add camera support
    • Uses ECMA-419 drivers for touch, audio, power, and IMU. This eliminates conflicts with the I²C support in the new camera driver.
  • Add new ESP32-S3 devices, all with camera support. For more information see our ESP32 document
    • Lilygo T Camera Plus S3 - platform build target esp32/lilygo_t_camera_plus_s3
    • M5 Atom S3R M12 - platform build target esp32/m5atom_s3r
    • XIAO ESP32S3 Sense - platform build target esp32/xiao_esp32s3_sense
• Modules
  • Commodetto
    • Bitmap
      • Implements set buffer - experimental and may be removed
      • Stores buffer reference in native code
      • Add YUV422 pixel format (YUYV byte order)
    • Pixel format Converter implements YUV422 to RGB565LE conversion
• XS
  • TypedArrays implement PreventExtensions to fail on resizable buffer. This tracks a fix in ECMA-262.
  • Fixed Error.prototype.stack memory corruption when function named Symbol.asyncIterator is on the stack and function names are stripped (default on embedded builds) (reported by @cmidgley)
  • Implement Module constructor from Hardened JavaScript draft specification
    • Enabled in xst for testing, disabled by default otherwise. - Define mxModuleStuff=1 to enable
    • Constructor is assigned to the global variable ModuleStuff reflecting its experimental status
• Testing
  • Add unit tests for ECMA-419 Flash.
  • ECMA-419 Audio out unit tests updated to test new type property
  • ECMA-419 storage tests updated for iterator and missing keys
  • Add remote disconnect test for ECMA-419 TCP socket #1430
• TypeScript
  • Fix type definition of original AudioIn read() (contributed by @stc1988)
  • Correct Wi-Fi modes (contributed by @cmidgley)
• Documentation
  • Improve syntax highlighting for code blocks and fix syntax errors in example code in documentation (contributed by @stc1988)
  • Correct licenses link (contributed by @SamuelMarks) #1432
• Examples
  • Add ECMA-419 camera examples

Contact Us

If you have questions or suggestions about anything here, please reach out:

• Start a new Discussion on our GitHub repository
• Drop by our Gitter to chat
• Contact us on Twitter / X at @moddabletech

Moddable SDK 5.1.0

Moddable SDK 5.1 contains improvements made between September 14 and October 11, 2024

Highlights of this release include:

• Raspberry Pi Pico - support for new RP2350 and version 2.0 of the Pico SDK
• ECMA-419 Audio Input and Audio Output for upcoming 3rd edition
• Improved error messages throughout XS for better JavaScript debugging

Moddable issued a press release about Moddable Six to share the news of our latest product with the world. Moddable Six is our most advanced display for Embedded JavaScript with unprecedented performance, quality, and ease-of-use. Read the news!

Raspberry Pi Pico developers need to update their pico-sdk, pico-examples, pico-extras and pico-playground repositories to version 2.0 (tag: sdk-2.0.0). That's easily done by reinstalling those repositories following the directions in our Getting Started with Raspberry Pi Pico document.

Work on the 3rd Edition of ECMA-419, the standard for Embedded JavaScript, is making rapid progress. We are adding Moddable's implementations of new modules to the Moddable SDK as they are ready. We are also providing unit tests and/or example apps. These should be considered experimental until ECMA-419 3rd Edition is officially standardized as changes may still be made. They are provided here for member of the committee and the community to try them out and provide feedback prior to standardization.

The Moddable SDK now supports directly including ESP-IDF native components from the ESP Component Registry. Check out our blog post Using the ESP Component Registry with the Moddable SDK to learn more.

Note: ESP-IDF v5.3.1 has been released. Our initial testing shows that it is compatible with Moddable SDK v5.1. We are not requiring an update to ESP-IDF v5.3.1 at this time, as it does not appear to contain any critical changes and there have been quite a few ESP-IDF updates lately.

Release Details

• Devices
  • Raspberry Pi Pico
    • Updated to Pico SDK 2.0
    • Support for new RP2350 (ARM cores only)
    • New RP2350 device build targets
      • pico/pico_2 for Raspberry Pi Pico 2
      • pico/pico_plus_2 for Pimoroni Pico Plus 2
      • pico/sparkfun_rp2350 for Sparkfun Pro Micro RP2350
    • Use sparkfun-pico library for PSRAM on Sparkfun Pro Micro RP2350
    • test262 and testmc test tools now run on Pico builds
  • Moddable Six builds no longer reserves GPIO 17 for read/write in MIPI display driver (it is not connected to the MCU)
  • Update DEBUGGER_SPEED for M5Stack Core2 based on field experience (Contributed by @stc1988) #1359
• Documentation
  • Add explanation of patching built-ins to preload documentation (Contributed by @cmidgley)
• ECMA-419
  • Audio input implementations for ESP32, macOS, Linux, and Windows added (3rd edition)
  • Audio output implementations for ESP32, macOS, Linux, and Windows added (3rd edition)
  • Listener socket conformance improvements
  • lwip socket memory corruption fix when no callbacks
  • Listener socket instances provide port property (useful when bound to dynamic port)
  • Use string in place of obsolete string;asii and string;utf8 formats
• Examples
  • Add wss (secure WebSocket) example for ECMA-419
  • Added Audio Input and Audio Output examples for ECMA-419 (3rd edition)
• Modules
  • lwip socket implementation
    • Validate host data (fixes use-after-free) #1410
    • Don't call XS in C API from another thread (could happen on dispose)
• Testing
  • Add $NETWORK.resolve() helper
  • ECMA-419 tests
    • Listener socket unit tests
    • No callback socket tests
    • Audio output tests (3rd Edition)
    • Storage (key-value pair) tests (3rd Edition)
• Tools
  • New manifest dependency feature for ESP32
    • Supports specifying additional include paths
    • Doesn't emit empty dependencies #1408
  • Update ADPCM-XQ audio compressor to version 0.5 (faster, higher quality)
  • ESP-IDF instrumented builds use CONFIG_ESP_CONSOLE_UART_BAUDRATE for the serial baud rate (contributed by @cmidgley)
• Typings
  • Add 419 Listener port
  • Add typings union for Socket (contributed by @cmidgley)
  • More complete Worker typings - including full constructor options object
  • HTTP Headers object uses string primitive for map (Contributed by @magenetaan)
• XS
  • Overhaul of error messages
    • Replaces "is no" with "is not a"
    • Moves name of function where error occurs to the end (in function)
    • Provides full path of function where error occurs when possible
    • Rephrased some error messages to eliminate ambiguities
    • Eliminate some redundancies
  • Fixes
    • Array.from() crash (found by Fuzzilli)
    • TypedArray [[Set]] with receiver. (Reported by @gibson042)
    • Array join() and toLocaleString() methods check meter to eliminate timeout (found by oss-fuzz)

Contact Us

If you have questions or suggestions about anything here, please reach out:

• Start a new Discussion on our GitHub repository
• Drop by our Gitter to chat
• Contact us on Twitter / X at @moddabletech

Moddable 5.0.1

Bugfix release #1408

Moddable SDK 5.0.0

Moddable SDK 5.0 contains improvements made between August 10 and September 13, 2024.

Highlights of this release include:

• OneWire support for ESP-IDF v5
• Integration of The ESP Component Registry with project manifests
• ECMA-419 TCP, UDP, and Listener sockets for Windows

The xs-dev project is working towards a version 1.0 release. If you aren't already using xs-dev, it is worth taking a look. It is the easiest way to install and update the Moddable SDK and the embedded SDKs it depends on. Nick Hehr, creator of xs-dev, is requesting feedback on changes to the structure of xs-dev to make it easier for future contributions and maintenance. If you are a user or contributor to xs-dev, please take a look.

Note: ESP-IDF v5.3.1 has been released. Our initial testing shows that it is compatible with Moddable SDK v5.0. We are not requiring an update to ESP-IDF v5.3.1 at this time, as it does not appear to contain any critical changes and there have been quite a few ESP-IDF updates lately.

Release Details

• Modules
  • OneWire support reimplemented for ESP32 family of microcontrollers using ESP-IDF v5
  • Audio Input module in simulator
    • Allow overriding the audio resource using config.audioInWave. Requested by @stc1988. #1390
    • Support stereo audio resources
  • Add another valid device ID to FT6206 touch input driver. Contributed by @washishi.
  • Add modules/data/views directory to hold C header files for use with CompileDataView. Initially includes Wave and MAUD file headers.
  • Commodetto static renderer uses c_rand on ESP32 to avoid overhead of cryptographically secure random number generator
  • UUID module falls back to random when MAC address is unavailable and conforms to RFC 9562 (contributed by @cmidgley)
  • Implement Net.get("IP") for Linux
• ECMA-419
  • TCP, UDP, and Listener sockets for Windows
  • TCP socket on embedded, macOS, and Linux conformance improvements
  • TCP Listener clears host destructor on close
  • File module implementations only need to export Directory
  • buildCommon.h
    • Compatibility with C++
    • Rework to support additional format types (used as part of experimental 419 Storage class)
• Devices
  • Moddable Six device targets now define default serial port for built-in programmer (reported by @mauroForlimpopoli) #1406
• XS
  • ArrayBuffer constructor steps were not strictly conformant with spec. Reported by @gibson042 with test case by @anba. tc39/ecma262#3388
  • TypedArray.prototype.byteLength now returns conforming size when buffer is resized to a non-integrate size. Reported by @gibson042. #1392
  • Fix parsing of conditional expressions following await. Only occurred when explicit resource management proposal support is enabled. (Reported by @gibson042). #1394
  • Correct explicit resource management function IDs that caused a few objects not to be skipped by Hardened JavaScript's lockdown()
  • Metering now uses 64-bit values consistently internally and in callback. Eliminates overflows and extends range.
  • Export fxFromBigInt64, fxFromBigUint64, fxToBigInt64, and fxToBigUint64
• Documentation
  • Fix syntax errors in code blocks of multiple documents. (contributed by @stc1988)
  • Explain dependency element for ESP32 targets in Platforms section of Manifest documentation
  • Add image of Moddable Six programmer (reported by @stc1988) #1393
  • Use jsonc (JSON with comments) to tag JSON fragments with comments (follow on to #1378)
  • Explanation of static expanded and augmented with link to Wikipedia (Requested by @stc1988) #1396
• Tools
  • xsbug-log
    • Can now capture binary data from embedded device to files on host computer
    • Works with multiple VMs for Web Worker support (contributed by @cmidgley)
  • Add $262.isLockDown() to allow test262 tests to determine if running under Hardened JavaScript's lockdown.
  • Bring wasm build up-to-date
  • testmc (unit test runner)
    • Add async $NETWORK.resolve() function for DNS look-up
    • Update list of TLS certificates
  • ESP-IDF component dependencies
    • Add native libraries from The ESP Component Registry with a dependency element in your project's manifest.json
    • See ESP32 OneWire driver for example
• TypeScript
  • Update instrumentation typings (contributed by @cmidgley)
  • Add AudioOut.volume case to enqueue typing (contributed by @stc1988)
  • Add optional microseconds() function to Time module typings (contributed by @cmidgley)
  • xsbug REPL reverse scope order resolution (impacts multiple variables of same name across different scopes)
• Tests
  • Add unit tests for ECMA-419 TCP socket
  • Add unit tests for ECMA-419 UDP socket
• Examples
  • New Embedded Escape Room Challenge to demonstrate Hardened JavaScript Compartments
  • Replay audio input/output example handles stereo and queues more samples to playback more reliably on all targets

Contact Us

If you have questions or suggestions about anything here, please reach out:

• Start a new Discussion on our GitHub repository
• Drop by our Gitter to chat
• Contact us on Twitter at @moddabletech

Moddable SDK 4.9.5

Moddable SDK 4.9.5 contains improvements made between July 19, 2024 and August 9, 2024.

Documentation

This release features many updates to documentation. Most of the updates are a result of work to translate the Moddable SDK documentation to Japanese. Thank you to the members of this effort for their careful work. To learn more about the translation effort and how to contribute, check out the translation read me.

Latest ESP-IDF

This release of the Moddable SDK migrates to ESP-IDF v5.3 for the ESP32 family of microcontrollers. Our goal is to keep the Moddable SDK up to date with the latest production release from Espressif so that embedded JavaScript developers can benefit from the latest fixes, security improvements, performance enhancements, features, and silicon support.

We always try to make these transitions to the underlying ESP-IDF software platform transparent to your JavaScript code. This hides how much work is involved in updating the Moddable SDK to the latest ESP-IDF. Here's some of what needs to be done each time:

• Migrate from newly deprecated APIs
• Update include file paths
• Update to latest configuration option constants
• Build all example apps
• Build for all support ESP-IDF family silicon
• Run unit tests
• Update recommended IDF version in make files for macOS, Windows, and Linux
• Update ESP-IDF installation and update instructions

The Moddable SDK contains instructions for updating to the latest ESP-IDF on macOS, Linux, and Windows.

TypeScript type definitions available from NPM

The type definition files (e.g. typings) in the Moddable SDK are now also published as the NPM package @moddable/typings for convenience of developers using Visual Studio Code and other development environments. The typings are updated for each Moddable SDK release. The version number of the typings package corresponds to the Moddable SDK release.

Release Details

• Documentation
  • Typos fixed in Poco documentation for fillPattern() and PocoBitmapDrawMasked - contributed by @tenugui-taro
  • Code examples in documentation now consistently use syntax highlighting (contributed by @stc1988)
  • Remove invalid trailing commas from JSON in documentation (contributed by @stc1988)
  • Document that mcrun supports -t build #1380
  • Fix documentation examples of ESP32 custom file system root #1386
  • Remove obsolete note about lack of https support from audio streamers documentation #1384
  • Document Flash class #1349
• Modules
  • fetch() supports chunked transfer-encoding
• XS JavaScript engine
  • Compartment constructor now aliases loadHook to importHook, and loadNowHook to importNowHook for compatibility with latest standards work
  • XS metering uses 64-bits internally in more places to avoid overflow
• Testing
  • testmc can now be built in different configurations. Added OTA configuration.
  • Implemented OTA unit tests
  • HTTP unit test updated to pass with changes on example.com
• Tools
  • Performance profiling can be enabled in xsbug when stopped at a breakpoint
  • Preload of modules supports "../../" in module specifiers #1373
  • mcpack uses canonical names internally to avoid duplicate entries in module map #1382
  • Allow projects to override device's custom partition map on ESP32 targets #1385
• Examples
  • Add Moddable Six to compatibility list for piu/sound and Wi-Fi Config examples

Contact Us

If you have questions or suggestions about anything here, please reach out:

• Start a new Discussion on our GitHub repository
• Drop by our Gitter to chat
• Contact us on Twitter at @moddabletech

Moddable SDK 4.9.0

Moddable SDK 4.9.0 contains improvements made between June 5, 2024 and July 18, 2024.

This release brings support for Moddable Six, our new development board! Moddable Six is our most powerful device, able to deliver advanced mobile-class user experiences on low-cost, compact embedded hardware. Here's just some of what it includes:

• ESP32-S3 MCU, a dual-core 240 MHz CPU with built-in Wi-Fi and BLE
• Bright, beautiful IPS display for flicker-free animation at 60 FPS
• Low-latency multi-touch display
• Audio speaker
• 8 MB high-speed PSRAM
• 8 MB high-speed flash storage
• Qwiic connector
• USB and serial

There's extensive technical documentation available for all the capabilities of Moddable Six. Dig into that to learn how to use the powerful hardware in your JavaScript projects.

Moddable Six is a significant upgrade to our most popular development board, Moddable Two. Moddable Six is available immediately at the same price as Moddable Two, starting at just $29.99. Check out the product page and order today.

Moddable Six is so much more powerful than Moddable Two that we created an all-new suite of examples to demonstrate what is now possible. Check out the Speaking Clock, Battery Monitor, and Smart Plug Schedule projects to see how Moddable Six brings mobile-class user experience to IoT products built with modern JavaScript.

Important: The Moddable SDK now recommends using ESP-IDF v5.2.2, the most recent production version of the Espressif SDK. This version contains major improvements to BLE and Wi-Fi compared to the previously recommended v5.1.2. Updating to ESP-IDF v5.2.2 is straightforward. For the vast majority of Moddable SDK projects, no changes to your JavaScript code are required. The Moddable SDK contains instructions for updating on macOS, Linux, and Windows.

Release Details

• Modules
  • ILI9341_p8 supports continue() called from script
  • TLS adds secp384r1 ECC for compatibility with OpenAI (#1368)
  • LittleFS renames MODDEF_FILE_LFS_PARITION_SIZE to MODDEF_FILE_LFS_PARTITION_SIZE (contributed by @cmidgley)
• ECMA-419
  • nRF52 Serial
    • Transmit pin is optional
    • Invoke onWritable before buffer is completely empty to allow truly continuous writes
  • WebSocket implementation now passes headers on to ECMA-419 WebSocketClient
• XS JavaScript Engine
  • Metering
    • Implemented for RegExp parser
    • Implemented for JavaScript parser
    • Apply relative weights to different kinds of operations to better model execution cost
  • Several Compartment fixes to improve conformance (reported by @kriskowal)
• Documentation
  • How XS implements JavaScript scopes is now documented - both data structures and runtime operations. Read more about it on our blog and then dive into the full document.
  • Fix Neostrand documentation examples (contributed by @stc1988)
• Devices
  • ESP32
    • Clean-up watch-dog timer configuration #1249 (contributed by @linfan68)
    • sdkconfig names updated to match changes in ESP-IDF
    • Neopixel has no task affinity on single core devices
    • Update CDC devices for ECMA-419 and mods
    • Eliminate use of usb_serial_jtag_ll functions with latest ESP-IDF
    • Reduce default ESP-IDF log output for ESP32-H2 and ESP32-S3 devices
    • Analog input only calibrates raw values (contributed by @linfan68)
    • Small changes to support limited use with ESP-IDF 5.0.x (not recommended or supported in general)
    • Avoid hang on ESP32 CDC devices when USB disconnects while using xsbug
• Examples
  • Piu backlight example
    • Feedback sound while adjusting brightness (requires host with audio enabled)
    • Floor on minimum brightness to avoid making screen too dark to read
• Tools
  • xst
    • Cleans up memory on stack overflow when fuzzing (contributed by @raphdev)
    • Memory use tracking for fuzzer includes tracking overhead to more accurately estimate total memory in use of process
    • Don't attempt to load directory path as a module
  • mcconfig & mcrun
    • Escape '#' (private scoped modules) with "^" on windows-only (nmake) #1356 (contributed by @ cmidgley)
    • Merge all tsconfig options, not only compilerOptions (contributed by @cmidgley)
    • Escape TypeScript private module specifier in make file
  • serial2xsbug
    • trace and trace command are now command line options (-trace and -tracecommands) instead of compile-time options
    • Fix crash that happened occasionally on reset
  • xsbug-log
    • Break out LogMachine into separate file, and use XSBUG_LOGMACHINE environment variable to select implementation to load (contributed by @cmidgley)
  • Simulator
    • Invoke onQuit prior to exiting
    • Moddable Six simulator (use sim/moddable_six build target)
• Tests
  • Update minimum PWM frequency to match ESP-IDF v5.2.2 changes

Contact Us

If you have questions or suggestions about anything here, please reach out:

• Start a new Discussion on our GitHub repository
• Drop by our Gitter to chat
• Contact us on Twitter at @moddabletech

Moddable SDK 4.8.0

The Moddable SDK 4.8.0 release contains improvements made between May 5, 2024 and June 5, 2024.

This release features very low-level improvements to the Moddable SDK. Highlights include:

• Updated to ESP-IDF v5.2.2 for ESP32 family MCUs
• ECMA-419 Files API on embedded using LittleFS
• Reliability improvements for BLE using NimBLE

Important: The Moddable SDK now recommends using ESP-IDF v5.2.2, the most recent production version of the Espressif SDK. This version contains major improvements to BLE and Wi-Fi compared to the previously recommended v5.1.2. Updating to ESP-IDF v5.2.2 is straightforward. For the vast majority of Moddable SDK projects, no JavaScript code are required. The Moddable SDK contains instructions for updating on macOS, Linux, and Windows.

Release Details

• XS JavaScript engine
  • Fix ModuleSource instance bindings property for modules imported only for side-effects (reported by @kriskowal)
  • Add xsBeginHostExit and xsEndHostExit to allow catching fatal exceptions
  • Default for mxBoundsCheck is now enabled to favor reliable execution (catching stack overflows, for example)
  • Consistent definitions of xsNewHost* functions between xs.h and xsAll.h, needed for WebAssembly builds (contributed by @SMotaal)
  • Add callbacks for new Base64 functions for compatibility with snapshots (contributed by @SMotaal)
  • Lockdown creates secure functions with length that matches original (for test262 compatibility)
  • Metering
    • Implement for JavaScript parser
    • Array, RegExp, String, and TypedArray loops that don't invoke scripts
  • Fixes for issues uncovered through extensive fuzz testing. Thank you to @Agoric for their support of this work.
    • ArrayBuffer.fromBigInt range check fixed
    • Hostile mapper function that detaches buffer no long crashes TypedArray
• ECMA-419
  • nRF52 Serial
    • Restart receive after read error
    • Enable useCount to avoid exceptions after closing
    • Reliability improvements
  • Files
    • Embedded
      • Implementation using LittleFS. Passes all unit tests on ESP32 family.
    • Linux
      • POSIX file support available on Linux
      • Linux uses RESOLVE_BENEATH to fully sandbox file access
    • Implement link support for POSIX file systems
  • PWM
    • PWM on ESP-IDF v5.2.x doesn't support low frequencies as fully as previous versions of ESP-IDF. An exception is thrown if an unsupported frequency is requested.
  • ESP32 H2, ESP32 C6, and ESP32 C3 now support ECMA-419 builds
    • ESP32 C6 and ESP32 H2 do not provide Pulse Count IO
    • ESP32 RISC-V devices do not provide GCC atomics. IO modules now work around this.
• Modules
  • HTML5 WebSocket implementation supports optional options object to include full ECMA-419 ws: or wss: configuration
  • HTML5 EventSource implementation reports status and statusText so scripts can detect/handle errors (contributed by @stc1988)
  • Piu supports slow motion rendering (60x slower than real-time)
• Devices
  • ESP32
    • Add Wi-Fi station_connect and station_disconnect events for ESP32 targets (contributed by @stc1988)
    • Audio Output amplifier control on ESP32 improvements
      • Turns off sooner after audio completes
      • Doesn't toggle if new audio queued while playing
    • BLE for NimBLE on ESP-32
      • Improvements to reliability, especially after closing, motivated by behavior changes in ESP-IDF 5.2.x
      • Bug fix in read descriptors. Previously some descriptor look-ups failed resulting in values being provided in an incorrect format. In some rare cases, this may require updating project code.
      • In rare cases, scan results could be delivered after terminating scan. This has been fixed.
    • ILI9341 parallel driver
      • Trigger transmit simplifications
      • Larger default rendering buffer (32 scan lines)
      • Eliminate potential tear on first frame after rendering pause
  • nRF52
    • Option to read User Information Configuration Registers (UICR) to a file using J-Link with the -t readuicr option to mcconfig
    • Only enable QSPI in build when USE_QSPI is set (off by default)
• TypeScript
  • Add Wi-Fi station_connect and station_disconnect events (contributed by @stc1988)
  • Wi-Fi bssid is ArrayBuffer (contributed by @cmidgley)
  • Add typings for QRCode module (contributed by @stc1988)
• Tools
  • xst
    • Support saving and loading test results as configurations to easily compare results between test runs
    • Adjust memory limit for oss-fuzz to reduce out-of-memory errors
    • Patches to limit memory use now thread safe
  • ble2gatt
    • Requires array values to be arrays, not single values
• Tests
  • Add unit tests for draft ECMA-419 Files API
  • BLE client and server tests updated
    • Fix tests related to descriptors now that look-up is working correctly
    • If service look-up fails (rare, but happens) provide descriptive error message
    • NimBLE doesn't provide RSSI immediately after connection, so wait for services to be polled before requesting RSSI

Contact Us

If you have questions or suggestions about anything here, please reach out:

• Start a new Discussion on our GitHub repository
• Drop by our Gitter to chat
• Contact us on Twitter at @moddabletech

Moddable SDK 4.7.0

The Moddable SDK 4.7.0 release contains improvements made between April 3, 2024 and May 5, 2024.

This release features very low-level improvements to the Moddable SDK. Highlights include:

• Nordic nRF52 IO enhancements
• String performance optimizations
• First implementation of draft ECMA-419 Files API
• Significant additions to xst, the XS test tool, to expand test coverage including running test262 under Hardened JavaScript

Note: This release is expected to be the last using ESP-IDF 5.1.2. We will migrate to ESP-IDF 5.2.1 in the next few weeks. ESP-IDF 5.2.1 has many Wi-Fi and BLE improvements.

Release Details

• XS JavaScript engine

  • String optimizations
    • Background: XS optimizes strings to minimize memory use. For some operations on larger strings (over 1024 bytes), this reduces performance.
    • Added optional side-table to optimize common string operations. The side-table caches the following information for the most recently used strings:
      • String length in bytes
      • String length in Unicode codepoints
      • Flag indicating string is 7-bit only ASCII
      • Last accessed index in bytes and Unicode codepoints
    • Side-table improves performance of common operations by 100x or more for long strings
    • Disabled by default in embedded runtimes
    • Enabled by default in command line build tools and xsbug
  • Upgrade to fdlibm from FreeBSD (previously using Netlib version)
    • Benefits
      • Actively maintained version
      • Fixes several undefined behavior errors
      • Generates results consistent with V8
    • Note: XS does not use fdlibm by default but provides it as an option for runtimes that need numerical consistency beyond what ECMA-262 requires
  • Fixes for issues uncovered through fuzz testing. Thank you to @Agoric for their support of this work.
    • String.prototype.at could read from arbitrary memory if garbage collection occurred while validating arguments
    • Eliminate overflow in newly added Uint8Array toBase64 and toHex
  • Fix build conflict between string cache and metering (contributed by @raphdev)

• Modules

  • ECMA-419
    • Early implementation of Files for ECMA-419 3rd Edition. This is currently POSIX-only, for macOS and Linux. Embedded device support and unit tests are planned.
  • Poco
    • Option to allocate pixel buffers in DMA capable memory as required by ILI9341 (MIPI) 8-bit parallel display driver
    • Let display driver set minimum size of pixel rendering buffer
  • ILI9341 (MIPI) 8-bit parallel display driver keeps display output disabled until first frame is drawn to eliminate start-up display glitch

• Devices

  • nRF52
    • Improvements when building on nRF targets on Windows
      • USE_WDT supported
      • Don't build USB sources on device without USB (UART-only)
    • ECMA-419 PWM
      • hz getter returns actual frequency, not requested frequency
      • Support more frequencies with nrF52 specific top_value property in constructor's options object
    • Instrumentation supported on UART-only builds
    • Reset pins to default configuration when closed (not in use). This can reduce energy use.
    • Uses SPI2 by default, instead of SPI3, to work around intermittent start-up failures
    • Fix build conflict with nRF52 _read and new read symbol from XS Base64 support
  • ESP32
    • Backlight management changes for Hosts that implement Backlight class (e.g. Moddable Two, Moddable Display 2)
      • Commodetto and Piu turn on backlight for projects that include them
      • Projects that don't use Commodetto or Piu leave backlight off at start-up

• Documentation

  • Add note about working with ESP32 devices that have both USB and UART ports
  • Document XS build flags related to strings for configuring ports
  • Fix broken links in documentation (contributed by @stc1988). Discovered as part of the project translating Moddable SDK documentation into Japanese.

• Tools

  • xst
    • Option to track all XS memory allocations to support more efficient fuzzing
      • Optionally abort when memory limit exceeded
      • Free memory on unrecoverable VM exists
    • Source code split into three parts to contain test262 and fuzzing support in their own files for easier maintenance
    • Profiling data includes metering count when metering is enabled
    • Remove code to disable LSAN, now that xst can clean-up memory allocations on abort (contributed by @raphdev)
    • Options to run test262 under lockdown (-l) and inside a Compartment after lockdown (-lc) to validate test262 conformance under Hardened JavaScript.
  • serial2xsbug on macOS suggests launching xsbug if attempt to connect to it fails
  • nodered2mcu maps Blockly to Function node (enables Blockly support for embedded JavaScript using Node-RED) (thanks to @ralphwetzel for the suggestion and @spillz-dxb for the motivation) @phoddie/node-red-mcu#126

Contact Us

If you have questions or suggestions about anything here, please reach out:

• Start a new Discussion on our GitHub repository
• Drop by our Gitter to chat
• Contact us on Twitter at @moddabletech

Moddable SDK 4.6.0

The Moddable SDK 4.6.0 release contains improvements made between March 4, 2024 and April 3, 2024.

Highlights of this release include:

• M5Nano C6 and M5Stack Core 2 v1.1 device support
• Support for proposed standard Base64 and Hex extensions to Uint8Array from Ecma TC39. XS is the first JavaScript engine to ship support for this proposal! Please give it a try to help evaluate the design before it is finalized.
• fontbm now included in the release tools binaries making it easier than ever to use custom fonts in your projects (if you don't use the downloadable release binaries, you'll still continue building fontbm yourself)

Note: This release is expected to be the last using ESP-IDF 5.1.2. We will migrate to ESP-IDF 5.2.1 in the next few weeks. ESP-IDF 5.2.1 has many Wi-Fi and BLE improvements.

Release Details

• Devices
  • Add support for M5Stack Core 2 v1.1. (Contributed by @meganetaaan and first time contributor @RChikamura!)
  • Add support for M5Nano C6 (esp32/m5nanoc6) (contributed by @stc1988)
  • Add esp32/esp32h2_cdc and esp32/esp32c6_cdc platform targets for USB debugging (motivated by @stc1988) #1326
• ESP32 family
  • Wi-Fi now clears credentials when done with a connection to avoid unexpected reconnects
  • ECMA-419
    • Digital Bank no longer uninstalls GPIO ISR service as it may be in use by other system components
    • Analog input fully initializes data structures (Contributed by @linfan68) #1322
  • ILI9341_P8 driver
    • Defaults to 50 FPS
    • Enable tearing-effect interrupt
    • Fixes for compatibility with testmc
• Modules
  • EventSource (for Server-Sent Events) now supports method, headers, and body options. This was motivated by certain AI cloud services.
  • AudioOut and pins/servo modules now link on Linux for convenience when using the simulator (Reported by @ronron-gh) #1328
  • Piu outline shape object supports disabling bounding box clip
  • zlib encoder and decoder modules reduce native stack size by moving buffers from stack to heap. This allows the modules to be used reliably with the default stack configurations.
    
• XS
  • Base64 / Hex Stage 3 proposal fully implemented
    • See proposal's playground for documentation and examples
    • Passes 100% of test262 tests
    • API designed enables streaming decoding and encoding to reduce peak memory use. See the example.
    • Moddable SDK modules and examples updated to use new JavaScript language Base64 and Hex transformations in place of Moddable SDK Base64 and Hex modules
    • Hex and Base64 modules still supported, but new code is recommended to use the new JavaScript language features
  • Fixes for issues uncovered through fuzz testing. Thank you to @Agoric for their support of this work.
    • Obscure bug in DataView.prototype.slice triggered by hostile use of species that triggered a call to memcpy with overlapping ranges
    • Obscure native stack overflow in RegExp parser
    • Reliably convert -9223372036854775808 to BigInt
• Tools
  • fontbm font generator
    • Supports user supplied character files. Documentation. (Motivated by work by @kitazaki and input from @NW-Lab) phoddie/node-red-mcu#123
    • If fontbm is available in the default $PATH, then $(FONTBM) environment variable no longer needs to be set
  • test262 now runs on ESP32-S3 devices using esp32/esp32s3 platform target
  • xst now has -b option to load binary files as JavaScript source text (useful for fuzzer generated test cases)
  • Disable ASAN on RegExp stack check for more reliable fuzzing (contributed by @raphdev)
• Tests
  • Wi-Fi scan cancel test waits for final scan to complete
  • Wi-Fi mode off test uses $DONE(err) instead of throwing
  • Wi-Fi constructor BSSID test uses highest signal strength access point if more than one available to improve reliability of test
  • Wi-Fi timeouts increased to allow tests to pass in more environments
• TypeScript
  • Typings for the standalone easing functions, recently split out from Piu. (Contributed by @stc1988)

Contact Us

If you have questions or suggestions about anything here, please reach out:

• Start a new Discussion on our GitHub repository
• Drop by our Gitter to chat
• Contact us on Twitter at @moddabletech