Unit
Next Generation Visual Programming System
Unit
Unit is a General Purpose Visual Programming Language and Environment built with a primary focus on Developer Experience.
It is heavily inspired by Live, Data Flow, Reactive, Functional and Object Oriented Programming paradigms. Formally, units are Multi Input Multi Output (MIMO) Finite State Machines (FSM). A program in Unit is represented as a Graph.
The Unit Programming Language was developed in close junction to the Unit Programming Environment, which is a Web application built for easy composition of new units. The environment is designed to feel visual and kinesthetic, giving the perception of Direct Manipulation of Live Virtual Objects. The Unit Programming experience is minimalistic, ergonomic, mobile, and can be performed through a variety of input devices, and editing can be partially expressed through Drawing, Gesture and Voice.
Unit is similar in concept to the Unix shell. For a seasoned programmer, Unit should feel like the 2D evolution of the Command Line Interface (CLI) where units’ (commands) inputs and outputs (stdin/stdout/stderr) can be piped together into a graph (script). Unit can be thought of as a re-exploration of the Unix Philosophy in the context of modern Software Engineering and Web Development.
The Unit system is set to grow into a simple and approachable Web Operating System, which is sandboxed by default, enabling a new era of Software Sharing and Collaboration, unifying the currently fragmented Computer Experience.
For an introduction to Unit Programming, visit Getting Started.
The broader design philosophy behind Unit is discussed in Concept.
To jump right into the official Unit Programming Environment, visit unit.land (beta).
Check out a collection of public open source units at unit.tools (beta).
Development
Install npm and git if you haven’t already.
Clone this repository:
git clone [email protected]:samuelmtimbo/unit.git
Get into the unit folder:
cd unit
Install:
npm install
Setup:
npm run setup
Start a local unit server:
npm start
For development mode:
npm run watch
Server
The quickest way to serve a local Unit Environment:
npx @_unit/unit
Then visit http://localhost:4000
Alternatively, specify a port:
npx @_unit/unit --port 8042
Library
Unit source code can be used as a general purpose library in any JavaScript project, both on Web and Node.js.
npm install --save @_unit/unit
To install unit globally:
npm install --global @_unit/unit
Usage
To render a unit JSON bundle:
import { renderBundle } from '@_unit/unit/client/platform/web/render'
const root = document.getElementById('root')
const bundle = {
spec: {
units: {
helloworld: {
id: 'a9cbed12-9a53-11eb-8c2e-f3146b36128d',
},
},
render: true,
component: {
subComponents: {
helloworld: {},
},
children: ['helloworld'],
},
},
}
const [system, graph] = renderBundle(root, bundle)
const helloworld = graph.getUnit('helloworld')
helloworld.push('style', {
color: '#ffdd00',
})
To boot a system and instantiate a new unit on it:
import { boot } from '@_unit/unit/client/platform/node/boot'
import { fromBundle } from '@_unit/unit/spec/fromBundle'
import _specs from '@_unit/unit/system/_specs'
export const [system] = boot()
const bundle = require('./MergeSort.json')
const MergeSort = fromBundle(bundle, _specs, {})
const mergeSort = new MergeSort(system)
mergeSort.play()
mergeSort.push('a', [2, 1])
console.log(mergeSort.take('a'))
Server
To start a local Unit server:
unit
Build
To build a Unit JSON bundle into a website, try:
unit build bundle.unit
This will produce a index.js file that can be loaded into HTML:
<body>
<div
id="__SYSTEM__ROOT__"
style="
display: block;
position: absolute;
top: 0;
width: 100%;
height: 100%;
overflow: hidden;
"
></div>
<script type="text/javascript" src="index.js"></script>
</body>
Check index.html for a more complete template.
Test
npm test
Links
List of related web applications:
Landing page featuring the Unit language and system’s vision.
Redirect to the official unit source code.
Fully local version of the Unit Environment.
Any *.unit.land subdomain represents a completely isolated instance of the Unit system.
Marketplace to explore, collect and play with open live visual programs built in Unit.
Appending #url to https://unit.moe will attempt to encapsulate the unit served at that URL in a graph editor. This is helpful for debugging an open unit website, for instance:
https://unit.moe#https://unit.software will show the code for https://unit.software.
https://unit.moe#https://unit.land will show the code for https://unit.land.
https://unit.moe#https://unit.tools will show the code for https://unit.tools.
Documentation
The Unit Programming Environment was designed to be learnable by Experimentation and Exploration. Visual and written documentation about each unit can be accessed using Info Mode.
This codebase is a TypeScript implementation of the unit Programming Language Spec with an accompanying Web based Programming Environment.
Contributing
Please feel free to clone or fork Unit’s source code.
This is the best place to learn about Unit’s design and implementation, and the official channel for Open Source collaboration.
The project is open for pull requests.
See CONTRIBUTING for guidelines.
Everyone interacting in Unit and its sub-projects’ codebases, issue trackers, chat rooms, and mailing lists is expected to follow the Unit code of conduct.
The Unit project has nearly infinite space for creative freedom, invention, and intimacy, which is what has motivated it from the start.
Backlog
Unit system API is composed of logical, platform (frontend and backend) and “operating system” units.
The direction of growth right now is ensuring a robust basic UI/UX and feature parity with Web and a subset of NodeJS (not native to the Web), like TCP and HTTP.
Visit Evolution to learn more about where Unit development is headed.
If you have a question or a suggestion related to Unit, or if you just want to talk about the future of Programming, or if you wish to join the Unit team, feel free to message me at @io_sammt or email me at [email protected].
For updates about Unit’s development, including thoughts about vision and roadmap, follow us on X @io_unit.
We hope you enjoy Unit and invite you to be part of our community!
License
MIT License
Copyright UNIT IO, Inc
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