Civet

The modern way to write TypeScript.

• Documentation
• Design Philosophy
• Civet Playground
• Civet VSCode Extension
• Discord Server
• Plugins for Vite, esbuild, Astro, Rollup, Webpack, RspackESM/CJS loader, Babel, Gulp, Bun
• Starter templates for Solid and Solid Start

Quickstart Guide

# Install
npm install -g @danielx/civet
# Run Civet code directly in a REPL
civet
# Transpile typed Civet code into TypeScript in a REPL
civet -c
# Compile Civet source file to TypeScript
civet < source.civet > output.ts
# Execute a .civet script
civet source.civet ...args...
# Execute a .civet source file in node
node --import @danielx/civet/register source.civet

Code Sample

ts, {CompilerOptions} from typescript

DefaultCompilerOptions : CompilerOptions :=
  allowNonTsExtensions: true
  allowJs: true
  target: ts.ScriptTarget.Latest
  moduleResolution: ts.ModuleResolutionKind.NodeJs
  module: ts.ModuleKind.CommonJS
  allowSyntheticDefaultImports: true
  experimentalDecorators: true

fileCache : Record<string, any> := {}

createCompilerHost := (options: CompilerOptions, moduleSearchLocations : string[]) ->
  fileExists := (fileName: string) : boolean ->
    fileCache[fileName]?

  readFile := (fileName: string) ->
    fileCache[fileName]

Overview

Civet is essentially a tasteful superset of TypeScript.

Implementations of New and Proposed ES Features

See the documentation for examples of these and other features.

• Pattern matching (based on TC39 proposal)
  • switch can match patterns like [{type: "text", name}, ...rest]
• Pipe operator (based on F# pipes, Hack pipes and the TC39 proposal)
  • data |> Object.keys |> console.log equivalent to console.log(Object.keys(data))
  • Use single-argument arrow functions or & shorthand to specify how to use left-hand side
  • |> await, |> yield, and |> return (at end) for wrapping left-hand side with that operation
• Short function block syntax like Ruby symbol to proc, Crystal, Elm record access
  • Access: x.map &.name or x.map .name → x.map(a => a.name)
  • Nested access + slices: x.map &.profile?.name[0...3] → x.map(a => a.profile?.name.slice(0, 3))
  • Function call: x.map &.callback a, b → x.map($ => $.callback(a, b))
  • Unary operators: x.map !!& → x.map($ => !!$)
  • Binary operators: x.map &+1 → x.map($ => $+1)
• Object literal shorthand
  • {foo()} → {foo: foo()}, {props.foo} → {foo: props.foo}
  • {`${x}${y}`: z} → {[`${x}${y}`]: z}
  • data.{x,y} or data{x,y} → {x: data.x, y: data.y}
  • Flagging shorthand based on from LiveScript: {+debug, -live, !verbose} → {debug: true, live: false, verbose: false}
• Custom infix operators from any two-argument function
• do expressions, if expressions, for expressions

Convenience for ES6+ Features

• Const assignment shorthand: a := b → const a = b, {a, b} := c → const {a, b} = c
• Let assignment shorthand: a .= b → let a = b
• Typed versions of above: a: number .= 5 → let a: number = 5 (but note that a: number = 5 is the object literal {a: (number = 5)}).
• @#id → this.#id shorthand for private identifiers
• import shorthand: x from ./x → import x from "./x"
• Dynamic import shorthand: import './x' not at top level (e.g. await import './x' or inside a function) → import('./x')
• Optional import rename syntax that corresponds to destructuring rename import {x: y} from "./z" → import {x as y} from "./z". You can still use as to be compatible with existing ES imports.
• export shorthand: export x, y → export {x, y}
• Triple backtick Template Strings remove leading indentation for clarity
• Class constructor shorthand @( ... )
• ClassStaticBlock @ { ... }
• < as extends shorthand
• /// Block RegExp like Python re.X

JSX Enhancements

Inspired by solid-dsl discussions and jsx spec issues

• Indentation: instead of explicitly closing <tag>s or <>s, you can indent the children and Civet will close your tags for you
• Multiple adjacent elements and/or fragments get automatically combined into a fragment.
• Arrow function children do not need to be wrapped in braces (assuming they are not preceded by text); this is unambiguous because > isn't valid JSX text. For example, <For> (item) => ... (where function body can be indented).
• #foo shorthand for id="foo"; also #"foo bar", #`foo ${bar}`, #{expr}
• .foo shorthand for class="foo" (but must be at least one space after tag name); also .foo.bar, ."foo bar", .`foo ${bar}`, .{expr}
  • "civet react" flag uses className instead of class
• +foo shorthand for foo={true}, -foo/!foo shorthand for foo={false}
• Any braced object literal can be used as an attribute: {foo} → foo={foo}, {foo: bar} → foo={bar}, {...foo} remains as is; methods and getters/setters work too.
• Attribute ...foo shorthand for {...foo}
• Attribute values without whitespace or suitably wrapped (parenthesized expressions, strings and template strings, regular expressions, array literals, braced object literals) do not need braces: foo=bar → foo={bar}, count=count() → count={count()}, sum=x+1 → sum={x+1}, list=[1, 2, 3] → list={[1, 2, 3]}
• Attributes can use computed property names: [expr]={value} → {...{[expr]: value}}
• "civet solid" flag adds correct types for JSX elements and fragments. Use "civet solid client" (default) for client-only code, "civet solid server" for server-only code (SSR only), or "civet solid client server" for isomorphic code that runs on client and server (SSR + hydration).
• XML comments: <!-- ... --> → {/* ... */}

TypeScript Enhancements

• Auto-rewrite .[mc]ts → .[mc]js in imports (workaround for: https://github.com/microsoft/TypeScript/issues/37582)
• := readonly class field initializer

    class A
      x := 3

    class A {
      readonly x = 3
    }

• Proposal: Typed Destructuring
• Proposal: Dot Notation for Types
• Proposal: Module Interfaces https://github.com/microsoft/TypeScript/issues/38511
• TODO: Type Declaration Shorthand

Changes from ES6

• Implicit returns, even for multi-statement functions (avoid by specifying a void return type, adding a trailing ; or explicit return, or via the directive "civet -implicitReturns")
• Disallow no parens on single argument arrow function. x => ... must become (x) => ... The reasoning is x -> ... => x(function() ...) in CoffeeScript and having -> and => behave more differently than they already do is bad. Passing an anonymous function to an application without parens is also convenient.
• for(i of x) ... defaults to const declaration → for(const i of x) ...
• Disallow comma operator in conditionals and many other places. if x, y is not allowed. But for i = 0, l = a.length; i < l; i++, i *= 2 is allowed.
• Comma operator in case/when instead becomes multiple conditions.
• Numbers can't end with a dot (otherwise would be ambiguous with CoffeeScript slices y[0..x]). This also implies that you can't access properties of numbers with 1..toString() use 1.toString() instead. When exponent follows a dot it is treated as a property access since an exponent could be a valid property 1.e10 → 1..e10. The workaround is to add a trailing zero 1.0e10 or remove the dot before the exponent 1e10.
• Additional reserved words and, or, loop, until, unless
• Experimental decorator syntax is @@ instead of @ because @ is premium real estate and @id → this.id, and @ is also static fields/methods, etc.

  @@classDecorator
  class X
    @@methodDecorator
    method() {}

• when inside switch automatically breaks and adds block scope.
• else inside switch adds block scope.
• No whitespace between unary operators and operands. Mandatory whitespace between condition and ternary ? ex. x ? a : b since x? is the unary existential operator.
• Labels written :label (except for special case $: for Svelte)

Scripting Improvements

• Shebang line is kept unmodified in output

  #!./node_modules/.bin/ts-node
  console.log "hi"

Comparison to CoffeeScript

Take a look at this detailed Civet // CoffeeScript comparision

Directives

Civet is not just one language; it can be configured in a variety of ways via directives to add or remove language features, or improve behavior in certain environments. See config documentation.

Using Civet in your Node.js Environment

You have now been convinced that Civet is right for your current/next project. Here is how to set up your environment to get productive right away and have a Good Time℠.

Testing

Code coverage with c8 "just works" thanks to their source map integration and Civet's source maps.

Currently Civet's ESM loader depends on ts-node

c8 + Mocha

package.json

  "scripts": {
    "test": "c8 mocha",
    ...
  },
  "c8": {
    "extension": [
      ".civet"
    ]
  },
  "mocha": {
    "extension": [
      "civet"
    ],
    "loader": [
      "ts-node/esm",
      "@danielx/civet/esm"
    ],
    ...
  ...

ts-node must be configured with transpileOnly (it can't resolve alternative extensions). Also I think module needs to be at least ES2020 for the Civet ESM loader to work.

tsconfig.json

  ...
  "ts-node": {
    "transpileOnly": true,
    "compilerOptions": {
      "module": "ES2020"
    }
  }

If you don't care for code coverage you can skip c8 (but it is so easy why not keep it?).

You can also add .js and .ts extensions if you want to mix and match! Even .coffee will work if you require coffeescript/register or add a loader for it.

Execute the tests

yarn test

Step 4: Enjoy!

Developing

Use the alpha version of Civet Language Server

The language server provides syntax highlighting, completions, hover documentation, symbols outline, red squigglies, and go to definition.

Q? Why can't I just use the built-in VSCode TypeScript LSP?

A: VSCode's built in TypeScript LSP can't resolve non .ts/.js, not even with plugins. Maybe one day they'll allow for plugins that let you adjust the resolver and insert a transpilation step but until then a separate language server is necessary.

Q? Sometimes the file outline disappears and the red squigglies are all in the wrong place and maybe a notification pops up about some kind of LSP error.

A: I'm sorry that happened to you but the Civet Language Server is still alpha and improving rapidly. Please let me know exactly what happened and I'll try to do better next time.

It may happen when there is a syntax error in your Civet file. You can check and see if it compiles using the CLI tool in the meantime.

Please do submit bug reports / feature requests.

Building

I strongly recommend using esbuild for building / packaging your Civet project.

import esbuild from 'esbuild'
import civetPlugin from '@danielx/civet/esbuild-plugin'

esbuild.build({
  ...,
  plugins: [
    civetPlugin
  ]
}).catch(() => process.exit(1))

It's super fast and works great!

Code Coverage

Sponsorship

If you are so inclined, you can sponsor Civet on Open Collective.