jackc

compiler for jack! this package compiles between

• jack (.jack)
• vm code (.vm)
• assembly (.asm)
• binary (.hack)

for the nand2tetris hack computer.

compiler is written in java, and test GUI is from the nand2tetris software suite (not built by me!).

installation

you can find the package on npm here!

if you have npm on your computer, just run npm install -g jack-compiler to install it. to use the emulators, you must have a java runtime installed!

background

jack is a language very similar to java but much easier to compile, designed for the nand2tetris course! it runs on the hack computer (also from the course).

the nand2tetris software suite contains many emylators to test scripts/chips, and two are bundled into this package! those are the vm emulator, cpu emulator, and hardware simulator (not useful for right now - but i may add features in the future that need it!).

commands

usage: jackc [-i <asm|vm|jack>] [-o <hack|asm|vm>] <file-or-folder>

  -i, --in <type>   input file type (inferred from extension if omitted)
  -o, --out <type>  output file type (default: hack)
  -h, --help        show this message

if <file-or-folder> is a folder, all matching files in it and its subfolders are compiled

emulators (official nand2tetris tools - need java installed):
  jackc vm-emulator [file.tst]         run VM programs (built-in OS, no 32K limit)
  jackc cpu-emulator [file.tst]        run compiled .hack binaries
  jackc hardware-simulator [file.tst]  simulate .hdl chip designs
with no .tst file they open interactively; with one they run it in batch mode

usage

if you want to compile a script and run it, you have two choices:

• compile to binary (.hack) and run in the cpu emulator (works for jack, vm, and assembly code)
• compile to vm and run in the vm emulator (work for jack code)

the vm emulator will allow you to run much larger scripts than the cpu emulator, which has a much smaller memory limit (the OS takes up a significant amount of the available memory).

you can use the snake script that i wrote in jack here as a test! it's too big to compile to binary - it'll only run in the vm emulator.

how it's built

the package has a lot of different parts.

• the compiler is written in java and is here
• the OS was written in jack (compiled to vm) and can be found here
• the test snake script was written in jack and can be found here