NetsBlox-VM
NetsBlox is a browser-based visual programming environment (based on Snap!) that extends the typical block-based programming features with internet and distributed computing tools such as RPCs (remote procedure calls) that access network resources (e.g., databases), and message passing between projects over the internet.
NetsBlox-VM is a native Rust implementation of the NetsBlox code execution engine and runtime. This makes it possible to execute NetsBlox program code at blistering speeds on any device targeted by the Rust compiler. But more importantly, NetsBlox-VM has several extension APIs which make it possible to extend its features with new hardware peripheral access capabilities (e.g., controlling sensors and actuators through GPIO), all with safe, native Rust.
Features
NetsBlox-VM contains the following feature flags.
| name | default | description |
|---|---|---|
std |
on | Enables the std crate dependency and access to the default netsblox_vm::runtime::StdSystem implementation of netsblox_vm::runtime::System |
cli |
off | Enables the std feature flag and additionally gives access to netsblox_vm::cli, which gives API access to the standard CLI (needed for syscall extensions) |
no-std
NetsBlox-VM supports building in no-std environments by disabling the default std feature flag via
[]
= { = "...", = false }
Note that this precludes access to netsblox_vm::runtime::StdSystem, meaning a new implementation of netsblox_vm::runtime::System would be required for your target platform.
CLI Installation
This crate includes a binary called nb which serves as a shallow wrapper for the netsblox_vm::cli API with a default suite of syscall extensions.
Note: if you need to create your own syscall extensions, you must do so in a separate binary using this crate as a dependency.
To install the standard CLI, you can use one of the following commands
# to build from source
# to install from source
# to install from crates.io latest release