Development Questions/Comments

I didn't know the best forum to post this - so feel free move it if a better place.

Short background. I am a full time programmer. For the last 2/3 years I have been leading a team using ReactJs (modern javascript framework) with Typescipt to build large scale multi platform apps.

I have spent the last 4 months as a fulltime parent and have been looking for some projects to do around that. I have worked with dev boards like the esp32 with both Arduino and more recently Micropython for a long time so although I don't do this type of development for a living I am very familiar with it.

I bought the bangle 2 watch a few weeks ago. The Javascript programming framework looked interesting. I liked the idea of open source software I can improve - mostly around improving the existing apps for hiking and navigation.

I have some comments around the dev framework which may well be ignorance, any criticism is meant as constructive rather than an attack on the framework and community. Any help or feedback would be grateful.

One of the starting points is the documentation. I am finding navigating the documentation confusing, often getting circular links from one page to another. Some of the questions below may be answered in the documentation but I haven't been able to find it (it also doesn't help when a small baby keeps interrupting)

1. Its not clear to me which version of Javascript espruino is supporting. es5, es6 .. etc? Or some cut down version supporting some of the functionality of one of these (as with micropython). I would be planning to use typescript and smaller single files of typescript in an offline ide, which could be built down to a single or multiple javascript files, if the compiler is custom javascript the use of typescript is limited.

2. Coding styles. There is a small section on suggested naming conventions, syntax structure etc. Has anyone considered having a defined linting file for people to use? You can even run forced linting when code is submitted to github. With an extreme implementation rejecting files not parsing certain linting rules.

3. Folder structure. Having boilerplate folder structure for new applications is really useful. Especially for beginner programmers. I can even make a cli in javascript to do this if there is demand. Although I am guessing the web ide makes chucking everything in a single file easier.

This questions come from looking at the documentation and existing code library. Having looked at existing navigation apps within the github repo. There is alot of very poorly built code. Long single files of functions (or in some cases not even split into functions). Lack of object orientated code (not sure if classes supported in the compiler). Use of timers instead of async functions. All of which is understandable for any hobby developer and are one of the issues with scripting languages over ones like c# which force better code by design.

The issue for me is that I can't extend any of the existing applications. I would need to rewrite the base code into a structure which would be maintainable and upgradable in the future. Without the use of linting and type safe code (typescript) building any reasonable size application is difficult. If I was rewriting one of these apps the first thing I would do is split the code into much smaller object orientated files. Splitting any generic code related to the hardware to a separate library project.

Was the original intention that espruino dev boards/watches will always just be for simple hobby type projects. Or was there a hope that atleast on the watch side users would build up libraries of really useful everyday apps? If the later is true, nudging people towards object orientated approaches, code split into smaller files, supporting additional layers like typescript becomes hugely beneficial. Third party function libraries you can just import with specific functions around the hardware sensors etc would allow quicker development and code reuse.