NOVA

NOVA is a secure embedded domain-specific language (DSL) and compiler for ESP32-class systems. It converts .myext programs into Arduino-compatible C++ while enforcing board-aware semantic safety before firmware is built.

Why NOVA

• Security-first embedded authoring with explicit unsafe boundaries.
• Board-aware semantic validation to catch hardware misuse early.
• Fast iteration loop from language source to flashable firmware.
• Native standard library modules for networking and cryptography.

NOVA V2.0 Capabilities

Concurrency and Runtime

• Native FreeRTOS task generation via task, @core(...), @rate(...), and spawn.
• Deterministic lowering of task entrypoints with pinned-core execution support.

Web Layer (Phase 2)

• wifi.myext provides typed station onboarding through WiFiConfig and connectWiFi(...).
• http.myext provides configureWebServer(...) and startWebServer() task flow.
• Codegen auto-injects required global headers when web symbols are detected.

Crypto Layer (Phase 3)

• crypto.myext provides hashSha256(payload: string).
• SHA-256 is implemented through ESP-IDF mbedtls digest APIs.
• On ESP32-S3, the mbedtls path can leverage hardware crypto acceleration when available.
• Codegen auto-injects #include <mbedtls/md.h> from AST and unsafe-block inference.

Language Tooling

• Official VS Code extension included in nova-vscode/.
• Syntax grammar and language configuration are bundled for editor support.

Repository Layout

• lexer.py: tokenization and lexical diagnostics.
• parser.py: recursive descent parser and AST construction.
• ast_nodes.py: typed syntax model used by all compiler phases.
• semantic.py: type and board-profile validation.
• codegen.py: target-specific Arduino C++ emitters.
• cli.py: end-user commands (check, transpile, build, monitor).
• compiler.py: programmatic facade over the compile pipeline.
• wifi.myext, http.myext, crypto.myext: standard library modules.

Quick Start

1. Create and activate a virtual environment.
2. Install dependencies from requirements.txt.
3. Run a semantic check:
   • python cli.py check blink.myext --target esp32 --board esp32s3_n16r8
4. Build and upload:
   • python cli.py build blink.myext --target esp32 --board esp32s3_n16r8 --fqbn esp32:esp32:esp32s3 --upload --port COM6

CLI Commands

• python cli.py check <input.myext> [--target ...] [--board ...]
• python cli.py transpile <input.myext> [--out ...] [--target ...] [--board ...]
• python cli.py build <input.myext> --fqbn <fqbn> [--upload --port <port>] [--target ...] [--board ...]
• python cli.py monitor --port <port> [--baud 115200]

Safety Model

NOVA keeps architecture-specific escape hatches explicit. Raw C++ can only enter through unsafe { ... } blocks, while regular DSL flows remain type-checked and hardware-profile validated.

License

MIT License. See LICENSE.