Javascript's God Mode : one language to rule them all. Code everything, everywhere, for everything, in JavaScript.

No VM. No Bytecode. No packaging. No Garbage Collector. Fully compiled to native binaries.

Table of contents

• What is NectarJS
• Efficiency
• EcmaScript Support
• Main objectives
• Install
• Using Native Compiler
  • Testing Your Installation
  • Windows
  • Linux / FreeBSD
  • Apple
  • First Compilation
• Starting with compilation
• Using Compiler Environmants
• Android Compilation
• iOS Compilation
• Arduino Compilation
• STM32 Compilation
• Compatibility Targets / Platforms
• Stores
• Actively Tested For

What is NectarJS

NectarJS is a JavaScript native compiler.

NectarJS is able to compile native apps for: Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, Raspberry, STM32 and more.

NectarJS aims to make JavaScript universal.

NectarJS is in active development, join us on Discord on IRC if you need more information.

NectarJS roadmap is on Trello

NectarJS Quick Start documentation

NectarJS Quick Hack documentation

NectarJS Full documentation is here (WIP) : NectarJS Doc

Efficiency

Some benchmarks with the file example/fibo.js and differents fibos arguments:

	NodeJS v12.8.1	QuickJS 2020-07-05	NectarJS v0.6.104
fibo(30)	0.15s / 7.0Mb	0.20s / 1.1Mb	0.04s / 1.0Mb
fibo(40)	1.80s / 7.0Mb	21.06s / 1.1Mb	0.04s / 1.0Mb
fibo(45)	19.44s / 7.0Mb	238.85s / 1.1Mb	0.04s / 1.0Mb

EcmaScript Support

NectarJS already supports more than 80% of ES3.

Prototype

• .call()

• .bind()

Array

• .length

• .push(value)

Class

• constructor

• methods

• static methods

Console

• .log(variadic)

JSON

• .parse(str)

• .stringify(obj)

Math

• .E

• .LN2

• .LOG2E

• .LOG10E

• .PI

• .SQRT1_2

• .SQRT2

• .abs

• .acos

• .acosh

• .asin

• .asinh

• .atan

• .atanh

• .atan2

• .cbrt

• .ceil

• .clz32

• .cos

• .cosh

• .exp

• .expm1

• .floor

• .fround

• .hypot

• .imul

• .log

• .log1p

• .log10

• .log2

• .max

• .min

• .pow

• .random

• .round

• .sign

• .sin

• .sinh

• .sqrt

• .tan

• .tanh

• .trunc

• .toString

Object

• .keys

performance

• timeOrigin

• .now()

String

• .length

• .toString()

• .indexOf(needle)

• .lastIndexOf(needle)

• .search(needle)

• .slice(start, end)

• .substring(start, end)

• .substr(start, end)

• .replace(needle, str)

Syntax

• for

• while / do while

• if / else if / else

• try / catch / finally

• function / lambda

• class

• new

• typeof

• instanceof

• undefined

• null

• Infinite

• NaN / isNaN

• true / false

Main objectives

• Supporting EcmaScript 3 standard (then 5, 6 ...)
• Supporting NodeJS and NPM ecosystem
• Supporting a maximum of platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, Arduino, ...)
• Being secure
• Embeding debuging tools
• Compile everything that can be transpiled in JS : Ruby (Opal), Python (Transcript, Brython, JavaScrypthon), TypeScript ...

Install

npm install -g nectarjs

Using native compiler

• You need to have GCC installed on your machine and registered in your path to compile.

Testing your installation

You can test your installation by running npm run njs_test

You can also test ES3 support with npm run es3_test

Windows

You can install Mingw for Windows here : https://osdn.net/projects/mingw/downloads/68260/mingw-get-setup.exe/ or Clang here: https://releases.llvm.org/

You can also install Linux for Windows and use a linux system on Windows

You need MinGW with POSIX threads

Linux / FreeBSD

On Linux or FreeBSD, you can install it with your distro (apt install gcc, yum install gcc, ...). You can use GCC, CLANG, or any derivative of those compilers (arm-gcc ...)

Apple iOS

You can install xCode and you are ready.

First compilation

nectar -b native file.js
or
nectar file.js

You can select a preset (speed or size):

nectar file.js --preset [speed|size]

You can also run the compiled executable just after compilation using --run:

nectar file.js --run

You can enable the quiet mode with --quiet:

nectar file.js --quiet

Starting with compilation

The simplest way to use NectarJS is :

nectar file.js

The output file name will be automatically chosen regarding the target. You can specify another output with -o something.out

To show more compilation infos :

nectar --verbose file.js

Changing the stack size (usefull on Windows) :

nectar --stack 10000000 flood.js

For more informations about compilation output, use --verbose

For help, use --help

Using compiler environments

NectarJS supports various compilation env:

• std
• node
• arduino
• wasm
• android

To compile a file using an env, you can use the --env switch :

nectar arduino-led.js --env arduino --target mega2560

Android compilation

First step, you have to install Android SDK and Android NDK.

Second step, you need to setup NectarJS with the paths of the SDK and the NDK :

nectar --setsdk path_to_sdk --setndk path_to_ndk

You can show your configuration with: nectar --config

Third step: compile your JS app for Android using :

nectar file.js --env android

The result file is an Android APK.

You can select your target with --target release|debug.

Need: SDK Android-19 and Android-28 NDK: tested with NDK 21

iOS compilation

You need Xcode to be able to compiler applications with NectarJS.

To compile a iOS app, select the iOS env with the flag --env ios :

nectar app.js --env ios

You can also target a plateform for running simulation :

nectar app.js --env ios --target 'iPhone-8, 13.5' --run

NectarJS will then compile your app and launch it with the simulator.

To test your configuration, you can compile example/ios.js app.

Arduino compilation

To compile an Arduino firmware, you need a recent avr-gcc compiler that supports c++17 (8 or 10 for example).

You can download it here: https://blog.zakkemble.net/avr-gcc-builds/

Once done, compile your code by selecting the arduino env, and choosing a target:

nectar example/arduino-led.js --env arduino --target nano

You can select a preset (speed or size) with:

--preset speed or --preset size

You can then flash the new firmware to a connected board with --flash

STM32 compilation

To compile SMT32 firmware with NectarJS, you need first to instal mbed-cli and to setup your environment:

https://os.mbed.com/docs/mbed-os/v6.0/build-tools/install-and-set-up.html

Once done, compile your code by selecting the stm32 env, and choosing a target:

nectar example/stm32.js --env stm32 --target NUCLEO_F446RE

You can select a preset (speed or size) with:

--preset speed or --preset size

Compatibility targets/platforms

Tests are made with GCC 7 and Clang 6

• All supported GCC platforms

• All supported Clang platforms

• All supported AVR-GCC platforms

Stores

NectarJS compiled apps are tested to be publishable on :

• Apple Store
  • https://apps.apple.com/fr/app/hiphen-plant/id1523867733

Actively tested for

• android

• wasm

• asm-js

• wast

• mac-osx

• linux-x86-32

• linux-x86-64

• linux-arm32v7

• win-x86-32

• win-x86-64

• Sun OS

• arduino-nano

• arduino-uno

• arduino-mega1280

• arduino-mega2560

• nucleo-l152re

• nucleo-l432kc

• nucleo-f446re