Elk is a tiny embeddable JavaScript engine that implements a small but usable subset of ES6.
It is designed for microcontroller development. Instead of writing firmware code entirely in C/C++, Elk allows to add JavaScript customisations to the firmware developed in C.
Elk’s approach is different from other scripting environments like micropython, which provide a complete JS API for everything. Elk is completely bare, it does not even have a standard library. All required functionality is supposed to be imported from C/C++ firmware, and JS code simply orchestrates things. That leaves Elk very minimal and tunable.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Zero dependencies. Builds cleanly by ISO C or ISO C++ compilers.
- Easy to embed: just copy elk.c and elk.h to your source tree.
- Small and simple embedding API.
- Does not use malloc. Operates with a given memory buffer only.
- Small footprint: about 20KB on flash/disk, about 100 bytes RAM for core VM.
- No bytecode. Interprets JS code directly.
- Cross platform. Works anywhere from 8-bit microcontrollers to 64-bit servers.
Website: github.com/cesanta/elk
Support:
Developer: Cesanta Software Limited
License: GNU Affero General Public License v3.0
Elk is written in C. Learn C with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| JavaScript Engines | |
|---|---|
| V8 | High-performance JavaScript and WebAssembly engine |
| SpiderMonkey | JavaScript and WebAssembly Engine, used in Firefox, Servo and more |
| QuickJS | Small and embeddable Javascript engine |
| Hermes | JavaScript engine optimized for React Native |
| JerryScript | JavaScript engine for the Internet of Things |
| Duktape | Embeddable JavaScript engine, focusing on portability and compact footprint |
| Elk | Tiny embeddable JavaScript engine |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
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