Moddable SDK 4.5.0

This release contains improvements to the Moddable SDK made between February 2, 2024 and March 4, 2024.

Highlights of this release include:

• XS 15, the latest version of our embedded JavaScript engine is here! It supports all the new capabilities of the latest revision of the JavaScript language, ECMAScript 2024!
• Energy savings. ESP32 now has the option to power-off Wi-Fi when not in use and nRF52 uses significantly less energy when in idle, extending battery life.
• New M5Stack simulator lets you use the Moddable SDK's simulator to more accurately develop your M5Stack projects.

New Hardware: Moddable recently launched the Moddable Display product line. Moddable Display is the beautiful way to bring your latest embedded JavaScript project from the workbench to the real world.

Reminder: ESP-IDF v5.1.2 is now recommended for ESP32 development. Please see the January 2024 Release Notes for details on how to update.

Release Details

• XS
  • XS 15 is here, with full support for ECMAScript 2024 (ES2024)! Conformance with the standard for all new features is 100%. Overall conformance is 99.92% for language tests and 99.88% for built-ins tests (see the XS Conformance document for details). New features in ECMAScript 2024 include:
    • New RegExp v flag for Unicode set mode to work with Unicode properties of strings, set notation, and improved case-insensitive matching
    • Promise.withResolvers() for convenience when creating promises in some programming styles
    • Object.groupBy() and Map.groupBy() to aggregate data
    • Atomics.waitAsync() for non-blocking wait on shared memory changes (not available yet for embedded targets)
    • String.prototype.isWellFormed() and String.prototype.toWellFormed() to efficiently check and ensure a string contains well-formed Unicode
    • Resizable ArrayBuffer and growable SharedArrayBuffers (these were already supported in XS 14)
  • Optimizations for String getOwnProperty, String.prototype.at(), and String.prototype.replaceAll()
  • Handle out of memory errors safely in xsdtoa.c
  • Fixes for issues uncovered through fuzz testing. Thank you to @Agoric for their support of this work.
  • XS reports syntax error for try without either catch or finally
  • Module specifiers with an arbitrary number of "../" are now supported
• ESP32
  • 8-bit parallel ILI9341 driver
    • CS pin optional
    • frameRate accessor to set hardware refresh rate
    • Uses binary semaphore to synchronize with tearing-effect ISR to eliminate spin loop
  • Using Serial JTAG debugger port with xsbug is now much more reliable. Worked around bug in the ROM that caused occasional hangs when writing. #1299 (reported by @NW-Lab)
  • Audio output supports optional GPIO to enable/disable an external audio amplifier
  • Clean-up watch-dog timer settings in sdkconfig files
• nRF52
  • Default to PowerMode.LowPower instead of PowerMode.ConstantLatency for (much) lower energy use during system sleep
    • New example showing how to set PowerMode
  • Hardware supports misaligned writes, so no need to set mxMisalignedSettersCrash (slightly faster 32-bit TypedArray writes)
  • When done using pin, reset to default state to reduce energy use
• Modules
  • New WiFi.Mode enumeration of constants for Wi-Fi operating modes
  • Wi-Fi implements new off mode to disable the Wi-Fi stack #1295
    • This frees memory (about 60 KB on ESP32) and reduces energy use
    • Implemented on ESP32 and Raspberry Pi Pico
    • Check for availability with if ("off" in WiFi.Mode)
    • Requested by @beckerzito, thanks to @tve for input.
  • OpenAI Audio streaming now supports Wave files in additional to previous MP3 support. (Contributed by @stc1988) #1316
  • Easing equation functions split out from Piu to their own module to be more generally useful (suggested by @stc1988) #1309
  • MQTT client handles write error while sending initial connect message
• Drivers
  • GT911 touch interrupt now triggers on rising edge (lower latency)
  • AM2320 temperature and humidity sensor - more reliable read timing and general clean-up. (contributed by @louisvangeldrop) #1311
• Tools
  • M5Stack simulator! (contributed by @stc1988). Use mcconfig -d -m -p sim/m5stack to try it out.
  • mcpack fixes for module aliasing to allow more npm modules to work correctly. (Reported by @FWeinb who is now using protobuf for protocol buffers)
  • xst
    • On Linux no longer sets -fsanitize-recover=undefined (contributed by @raphdev)
    • Hooks memory allocators (malloc, etc) to be able to force failures when fuzzing
  • mcchex now available in Linux binary distribution (contributed by @ethos-jgreenwood) #1315
• TypeScript
  • Typing for Time.delta() (contributed by @meganetaaan)
  • Typing for Outline.scale single scale factor overload (contributed by @stc1988)
  • Typing for easing (contributed by @stc1988)
• Examples
  • ECMA-419 blink and button examples report missing pin configuration
  • Color-Picker example manifest updated to include Commodetto explicitly #1303 (reported by @stc1988)
  • Wi-Fi examples updated to use new WiFi.Mode enumeration to improve readability
  • SomaFM app uses much less memory on station list screen, improving reliability

Contact Us

If you have questions or suggestions about anything here, please reach out:

• Start a new Discussion on our GitHub repository
• Drop by our Gitter to chat
• Contact us on Twitter (X) at @moddabletech