TypeScript for Picotron

This is an experimental template project to mix-and-match TypeScript and Lua for your Picotron projects.

Most of the _G.d.ts file has been AI-generated from the official documentation, with progressive manual adjustments.

Important

TypeScript code converted to Lua code is not guaranteed to be correct or efficient. Read the TypeScriptToLua documentation, follow best practices, and review the generated Lua code.

Tip

Several Picotron idiomatic functions can (and should) be used instead of their TypeScript counterparts.
e.g. use error() instead of throw new Error(), or deli() instead of array.splice() to delete single items. This will improve the performance and reduce the size of the generated Lua code.

Setup

Requirements

• NodeJS
• pnpm

Create your project

• Create a new project (i.e. my-project) from this template
• Clone my-project in your Picotron's drive folder
• cd my-project then
  • pnpm install
  • pnpm build
• Inside Picotron:
  • Open the terminal, cd my-project then load game
  • Edit main.lua to change the cd line to cd("/my-project/build")
  • Run the game

Development

• pnpm dev will watch and rebuild your TypeScript code.
• pnpm build is required when you change Lua code.

The resulting code is a single build/bundle.lua file.

Publish

In Picotron

> cd my-project
> load game

• Open the code inside Picotron
• Comment the cd() line in main.lua
• Save

On the host

pnpm build

In Picotron

Open the terminal:

> cp -f /my-project/build/bundle.lua /ram/cart/bundle.lua
> save
> export my-project.bin