Rust-like Programming Language for Low-resource Microcontrollers

Abstract

This article proposes a programming structure for low-resource microcontrollers over the name of Sokae Project, this is inspired by Arduino and Micropython projects and pretends to work as a medium point between both programming structures taking the best features of each kind of languages and programming structures. The project’s name is inspired by the crab pet of Rust programming language. Sokae means crab in Emberá Chamí language, so the project’s name is a tribute to Emberá native people. The programming structure is composed of three main components: a language based on Rust syntax, a transpiler that turns the defined Rust- like language into C, and a generic Application Programming Interface API. The main goal of this project is to obtain a cross- platform programming structure for programming low-resource microcontrollers over the same language and API. Sokae language is a small subset of Rust programming language following its overall syntax. On the other hand, the transpiler from Sokae language to C is implemented by using Python and the SLY module as lexer and parser. Likewise, the API is written for the native C compiler for each microcontroller, so it is necessary to use it as a part of the project. Several application examples are tested in order to check the correct working of the overall programming structure, just over the XC16 compiler for PIC24/dsPIC33 microcontroller family. Finally, after several tests, the proposed programming structure shows that it is possible to use modern language structure to program any kind of microcontroller no matteríts limited resources.