janet VS kaboom.js

I first came across something like this in janet, which includes a PEG system in the standard library. It definitely changed how I think about text processing. Very much of the time what I find myself doing with regex is defining a grammar, but I didn't realize that. I wish more languages included the tools for it, it's a core operation of practical programming.

https://janet-lang.org

...I of course would rather embed Janet [1], but I realize what is going to have an easier time gaining popularity %) Also, Lua has Löve [2] which could be immediately usable, among other things.

[1]: https://janet-lang.org/

[2]: https://www.love2d.org/

I don't think it has absolutely all that, but janet might be close?

https://janet-lang.org/

> Would you write your own JSON parser, is it that easy in LISP?

I only dally with Lisp(s) but probably not, I'd reach for a library in quicklisp.

However, in Janet (https://janet-lang.org/) there's a PEG parser and I wrote a JSON parser for fun in 134 lines that passes most of the test suite by Nicolas Seriot.

So I'd say it's reasonably easy for a better-skilled programmer than I am.

Only tangentially related, but for anyone interested in the idea of a simple, quick Python-like scripting Lisp, there are two Clojure-style languages to look at:

1) Hy (https://hylang.org/, compiles to Python bytecode, usually slower than Python but compatible with all Python libraries)

2) Janet (https://janet-lang.org/, very light Lua-style embeddable VM ~1 Mb, roughly twice as fast as Python for similar ops, very easy C interop)

Seems like a perfect use-case for Janet. (https://janet-lang.org/) A fast minimal VM like Lua, but even more extensible than Lua by being a "Lisp" with macro and C extension capabilities. Not a true Lisp, it's very pragmatic and performance-oriented. But it keeps the good stuff.

You might be looking for: https://janet-lang.org/

It comes with a build tool `jpm` which installs dependencies globally by default, but you can have it be installed in your project folder as well.

I like Clojure, but I never had any good opportunities to use it other than for a few small hobby projects. It is unfortunate that it is so huge with tons of dependencies and no simpler native implementation. I started looking at various LISPs and Schemes to find something lighter to use instead and ended up settling for Janet that I think is Clojure-like enough to be comfortable to use, but in a small native binary with no dependencies and can be embedded in other native programs. I am sure for big, real, projects that Clojure makes more sense, but for my hobby projects and scripts I do not think I will install it again. I am still happy for the things I learned from learning Clojure. It was a real eye-opener for an old OO-programmer.

https://janet-lang.org/

For my case, I was trying to integrate (the deprecated) KaboomJS into React and Remix. I already built a few games years ago with Vanilla JS & Vite, but I really wanted to create a single website that hosted all of the games in one deployment on Vercel.

I have used Kaboom https://kaboomjs.com/ to help a diverse group of kids build a simple 2d game together. It’s a toolkit specifically geared toward 2d platform we type games but it could be adapted to make other 2d games. I liked that it was just JavaScript under the hood so you can introduce many programming language concepts, but the engine makes it easy to get things going with very little code. There are also lots of opportunity to focus on design aspects over pure code.

You can also use it online with Replit https://replit.com/@replit/Kaboom#code/main.ts which lets you get up and running quickly and share your work online easily.

Apparently it is no longer actively maintained by Replit, but I’m guessing it still works fine and there is also a community fork: https://github.com/kaplayjs/kaplay?tab=readme-ov-file

Switch to 2D and use kaboom: https://kaboomjs.com/ it is incredibly simple but incredibly rewarding!

But if Lua isn’t really your thing, then you could try out KaboomJS, a similar open-source javascript game library.

kaboom.js - a simple javascript library for 2D games

Kaboom is a Javascript game programming library that helps you make games fast and fun. Building games in the browser has never been so easy thanks to Kaboom from Replit. Github