gemigreerd-js-maker/README.md

js-maker

js-maker is a deliberately small Racket macro for generating JavaScript text from a compact Racket/Scheme-like surface syntax.

The public API is intentionally small:

(require js-maker)

(js form ...)

There is no public js1 and no js/expression. Expression-oriented examples should be written as normal JavaScript-producing programs, usually by placing an explicit (return ...) in a generated function.

Supported core forms

The js-maker 3 restart supports the following core forms:

• (define (name arg ...) body ...)
• (define name expr)
• (lambda (arg ...) body ...) and (λ (arg ...) body ...)
• (if condition then else)
• (begin body ...)
• (return expr)
• (set! target expr)
• ordinary let with parallel binding semantics
• let* with sequential binding semantics
• named let, compiled to while (true) with parallel loop-variable updates
• quote/eval for simple datum insertion
• calls, infix arithmetic/comparison operators, and, or, not
• (send obj method arg ...)
• (new Class arg ...)
• (js-dot obj field ...) / (dot obj field ...)
• (js-ref obj key ...) for JavaScript bracket/index access
• (list ...) and (cons a b)

js-ref is a DSL form inside (js ...), not a separately exported binding. For example, (js-ref xs i) generates xs[i], (js-ref obj "name") generates obj["name"], and (set! (js-ref xs i) value) generates an indexed assignment.

Named let is statement-oriented. A tail call to the loop name continues the loop. The branch that leaves the loop should use an explicit (return ...).

Running tests

From the package root:

raco test -p js-maker

If Node is available, several generated JavaScript programs are executed. If no Node executable is found, those runtime checks are skipped and the string-level checks still run.

What was removed from the old test set

The previous larger branch contained tests and demos for a broader language and runtime shim. Those are not part of the compact js-maker 3 restart. The old hash, regexp, with-handlers, for/list, for/fold, while, when, cond, case, object/class/destructuring and runtime helper tests were removed or replaced by tests for the supported core forms above.