JerryScript – A JavaScript Engine for Internet of Things

[inglor]

Wait, so Samsung wrote their own new JavaScript engine for embedded devices? This is actually very cool.

It looks very constrained in what it supports so far though.

Update: They're at ECMAScript 5.1 https://github.com/Samsung/jerryscript/issues/205 but not all tests are running https://github.com/Samsung/jerryscript/issues/158

Ok, it doesn't yet JSON.stringify https://github.com/Samsung/jerryscript/issues/432 so not sure if ready yet.

[daurnimator]

Similar projects:

  - http://duktape.org/
  - http://mujs.com/
  - https://github.com/gfwilliams/tiny-js
  - http://pdqi.com/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/pdqi/jsi.cgi/doc/tip/jsi/www/index.wiki

Fun alternative: Compile JS to Lua and run that instead (e.g. as done by https://tessel.io/)

  - https://github.com/PaulBernier/castl
  - https://github.com/tessel/colony-lua

[rawdisk]

One more: https://cesanta.com/smartjs.shtml

Opinion: Lua is a better choice for IoT but alas the programming "market" has (again) chosen the worse alternative.

[bsder]

Don't forget Picobit which is Scheme: https://github.com/stamourv/picobit

[robmccoll]

How does this compare to duktape (http://duktape.org)? I really like duktape's API and documentation (stack-based interface similar to Lua and the doc perfectly describes how each function call affects the stack state).

[mwcampbell]

The API isn't stack-based. It's more like the Python C API, complete with reference counting (but note that actual memory reclamation is done through mark-and-sweep GC), except that instead of everything being a pointer to an object, numbers and booleans are represented directly, so a union is used to represent values.

[tomphoolery]

Coming soon: GeorgeScript, a little language that compiles into JerryScript.

[the-dude]

Everybody knows: you have got to keep your worlds apart!

You have slipped up.

[sklogic]

I'm struggling to understand - what's the point of using JavaScript for anything embedded?

[nilliams]

Because 'scripting' hardware (coding in a fairly high-level language) is a lot of fun and coding the same sorts of things in C is pretty painful & requires up-front knowledge of a lot of stuff you don't really need to know til later (memory management, types etc).

Sure there's Lua et al but JS is just a more relevant language nowadays.

[dragonwriter]

> I'm struggling to understand - what's the point of using JavaScript for anything embedded?

The point, I would suspect, is lots of people already know JavaScript, so it lowers the barrier to entry to embedded programming.

[kzhahou]

Internet Of Things is a rather meaningless term. It was fuzzy at first, and remains so a few years on.

Here, just say "resource-constrained devices" or something with ANY amount of meaning.

[tomphoolery]

The authors of this engine are Samsung, who are currently leading the world in promoting the "Internet of Things" buzzword.

[orf]

AKA how to not to make a landing page. "For more info check the Github" -> "View the wiki for more info" -> repeat.

[Animats]

Nice. JavaScript allocates a lot of memory dynamically, and sometimes implicitly, though. In very tiny RAM environments, that's going to be a problem.

[weland]

It would probably be OK if all programs have a simple, predictable sequence of malloc and free that they call in a loop, with similar-ish sizes each time.

It's extremely unpleasant to program something with just a few KB of RAM and not know exactly what memory goes where. However, a lot of IoT-related gadgets just gather a buffer of data from an ADC or something, average it and send it over some wireless protocol every 1 minute. The allocation pattern is predictable enough that you don't run into strange cornercases.

I see no reason why anyone would want to use this commercially, but for the enthusiast market (and maybe even for some rapid prototyping) this looks interesting enough.

[arez]

had the same thought, why do I have to do everything with JS, sometimes I think it's only to satisfy "Atwoods Law" again and again :) would do it in Go lang, not as raw as C but good and up to date enough for this purpose.

[cfstras]

Isn't this basically the same as the Espruino [1]? Has anyone compared the two in terms of performance and handling?

[1]: https://github.com/espruino/Espruino

[bitmapbrother]

JerryScript - A scripting language about nothing.

[tmrmn]

a few days ago Cesanta brought their v7 JS engine to the esp8266 and now samsung is showing JerryScript. Pretty interesting times for embedded JS

[hmottestad]

For anyone interested in IoT, look at the esp8266.

It is a tiny chip with included wifi. It was 2 digital IO ports, and also a serial connection if you want to connect it to an arduino.

And at the moment it costs 2.6 USD on ebay!!!

And someone made a plugin so you can program it from the Arduino IDE: https://github.com/esp8266/Arduino

[vegancap]

This is something Tessel does well, I believe they do all kinds of transpilation to Lua. This could be really useful for them.

[tracker1]

IIRC, I believe the Tessel guys are abandoning the transpiler approach in favor of slightly more powerful hardware for the next generation that can just run node directly... We're really at a point where for the types of projects people want to run for under $100 of hardware, it's fast enough to do a lot more.

Power is a bit of a concern, and it all depends on the environment... being able to get every web monkey coding in more environments is a big win for enthusiasts and commercial applications for limited scope projects... Hell, without a screen or antenna powered on all the time, you can get a lot of processing done on even a smart phone from two generations ago.

[BFatts]

http://www.espruino.com/

This has been around for a lot longer than Samsung's (as far as I know) and has a lot of great support. If you're looking for a small, embedded JS processor built specifically for this kind of thing, I'd recommend Espruino.

[volaski]

Am i the only one who doesn't get the reference? Where does the name Jerry come from?

[jbottigliero]

My first thought was "jerry-rigged". Rather than starting the almost inevitable conversation here ("jerry" vs. "jury"), I'll point out the following SE answer[1]...

[1] http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/132868/jury-rigge...

[sanxiyn]

It comes from "Tom and Jerry". Source: I was there when the name was decided.

[cfontes]

Very interresting.

But I just hate this "Internet of Things" name... There must be a better suited name for it.

[personjerry]

I like the name :)

[Raed667]

If it doesn't work with an Ardunino Uno, then it is not relevant.

[Raed667]

Ok maybe an STM32F1 as well