AssemblyScript NEXT

AssemblyScript compiles strictly typed TypeScript to WebAssembly using Binaryen. Unlike other toolchains, asc generates minimal WebAssembly modules while being just an npm install away.

Examples

A few early examples to get an idea:

• Conway's Game of Life
  Continuously updates the cellular automaton and visualizes its state on a canvas.

• i64 polyfill
  Exposes WebAssembly's i64 operations to JavaScript using 32-bit integers (low and high bits).

• PSON decoder
  A PSON decoder implemented in AssemblyScript.

• TLSF memory allocator
  A port of TLSF to AssemblyScript.

• μgc garbage collector
  A port of μgc to AssemblyScript.

Or browse the compiler tests for a more in-depth overview of what's supported already. One of them is a showcase.

Getting started

Note that this version of the compiler is relatively new and does not yet support some features a TypeScript programmer might expect, e.g., strings, arrays and classes. It is not on npm, yet, but you can already try it out today:

$> git clone https://github.com/AssemblyScript/assemblyscript.git
$> cd assemblyscript
$> npm install
$> npm link

Author your module using either

• the assembly definitions (base config) if all you care about is targeting WebAssembly/asm.js or
• the portable definitions (base config) if you also want to compile to JavaScript using tsc

and run:

$> asc yourModule.ts

See the AssemblyScript wiki for additional documentation.

Building

Building an UMD bundle to dist/assemblyscript.js (binaryen.js remains an external dependency):

$> npm run build

Running the tests:

$> npm test