pxt-calliope/docs/js/faq.md
2016-07-26 14:10:41 -04:00

2.1 KiB

Frequently asked questions

What is the language supported for the micro:bit?

For the micro:bit, we support a "static" subset of TypeScript (itself a superset of JavaScript):

Supported language features

  • variables with let, const, and var
  • functions with lexical scoping and recursion
  • top-level code in the file; hello world really is console.log("Hello world")
  • if ... else if ... else statements
  • while and do ... while loops
  • for(;;) loops (see below about for ... in/of)
  • break/continue; also with labeled loops
  • switch statement (on numbers only)
  • debugger statement for breakpoints
  • conditional operator ? :; lazy boolean operators
  • namespaces (a form of modules)
  • all arithmetic operators (including bitwise operators); note that in microcontroller targets all arithmetic is performed on integers, also when simulating in the browser
  • strings (with a few common methods)
  • string templates (`x is ${x}`)
  • arrow functions () => ...
  • classes with fields, methods and constructors; new keyword
  • array literals [1, 2, 3]
  • enums

Unsupported language features

We generally stay away from the more dynamic parts of JavaScript. Things you may miss and we may implement:

  • exceptions (throw, try ... catch, try ... finally)
  • for ... of statements
  • object literals { foo: 1, bar: "two" }
  • method-like properties (get/set accessors)
  • class inheritance

For JS-only targets we may implement the following:

  • regular expressions
  • classes implementing interfaces

Things that we are not very likely to implement:

  • file-based modules (import * from ..., module.exports etc); we do support namespaces
  • spread operator
  • yield expression and function*
  • await expression and async function
  • typeof expression
  • tagged templates tag `text ${expression} more text` ; regular templates are supported
  • binding with arrays or objects: let [a, b] = ...; let { x, y } = ...
  • with statement
  • eval
  • delete statement
  • for ... in statements
  • JSX (HTML as part of JavaScript)