goboscript v3.1.0

This release features a refactored pre-processor that fixes several issues, paves the way for new features, and gracefully handles errors.

CONCAT Macro
Joins two tokens into a single token.


CONCAT can be nested, for example:


Limitation: Currently, only name tokens can be joined.

Recursive Macros
Recursive macros (macros that reference their own name in their definition) are now handled gracefully. Once a macro is expanded, it is marked as suppressed to avoid re-evaluation in the same substitution pass, preventing hangs and infinite loops.

Parsing Ambiguity: Variable-like vs Function-like Macros
When defining a variable-like macro whose definition starts with a ( token, if the token following is a name, it may be misinterpreted as a function-like macro.
Solution: To ensure proper parsing, additional parentheses are required. For instance, defining %define unit_range (zero,one) now requires extra parentheses:

Recommended Conventions for Macros
Function-like Macros: Use these to clearly indicate that the macro expands into an expression (e.g. IS_HOVERED() instead of IS_HOVERED), which avoids confusion with global variables.
Naming: Uppercase naming is recommended for macros.
Constants: For constants, consider using variable declarations (e.g. var EXAMPLE = 2*(3+4); ) if constant-folding optimizations are not required.

I find it quite funny how it still looks like scratch even in a text format. Because of that however, i don't really see a point. I guess its more flexible and less restrictive but i don't know since i don't do scratch anymore.

codingfire23 wrote:

I find it quite funny how it still looks like scratch even in a text format. Because of that however, i don't really see a point. I guess its more flexible and less restrictive but i don't know since i don't do scratch anymore.

You missed all the mentions of macros, functions with returns, structs, enums, and more.

There's no need to manually create variables in the project editor, you type them and they are created. There are local variables to stay within the scope of the procedure they are a part of.

You can copy-paste code. Find and replace. No more pain of backpacking scripts and finding out they made a mess of variables that require renaming or replacement. You can also include code from other files or libraries.

You can use version control such as Git.

It's very useful. I'm making my next project with it.

awesome-llama wrote:

codingfire23 wrote:

I find it quite funny how it still looks like scratch even in a text format. Because of that however, i don't really see a point. I guess its more flexible and less restrictive but i don't know since i don't do scratch anymore.

You missed all the mentions of macros, functions with returns, structs, enums, and more.

There's no need to manually create variables in the project editor, you type them and they are created. There are local variables to stay within the scope of the procedure they are a part of.

You can copy-paste code. Find and replace. No more pain of backpacking scripts and finding out they made a mess of variables that require renaming or replacement. You can also include code from other files or libraries.

You can use version control such as Git.

It's very useful. I'm making my next project with it.

Makes sense why you would use it now. I literally can't read these days XD

This is a great project! If only there's more blocks implemented…

([variable v] of [Sprite1 v])

Here is one such block. (its opcode is sensing_of with a child sensing_of_object_menu)

goboscript was one of the first-place winners of FOSS HACK 25, and was awarded a 50,000 Rs. prize. FOSS HACK 25 was a open-source hackathon conducted on 22nd - 23rd February 2025 by the FOSS United Foundation. During the 48-hour hackathon, I had worked on several goboscript issues and feature implementation.

Is there a way to generate blocks xml from a text file, instead of creating a project, direct exe or better wasm. I was hoping to integrate with CodeSkool, a free to use, commercial Scratch mode for Robotics and AI. Instead of generating a whole project, wanted user to just fast type something that will be added to the current project. Creating a whole project has limited use cases.

YESSSSSSSS PLEASE ADD ST!!!!!!!!!

GOBO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

star the repo

aspizu wrote:

star the repo

done

gilbert_given_189 wrote:

This is a great project! If only there's more blocks implemented…

([variable v] of [Sprite1 v])

Here is one such block. (its opcode is sensing_of with a child sensing_of_object_menu)

I tried making that my own text based scratch recreation, and it is very difficult because it uses both kinds of dropdowns

I'm adding an interpreter to goboscript, so you can directly run scripts written in goboscript.


it will have most of the features from Scratch. but it will still be very limited, additionally I will add file and network I/O through special procedures and functions which will do nothing when compiled normally.

functions now have default arguments, after i merge the kwargs branch, working on struct field defaults right now.
we got to hacker news front page guys!

gilbert_given_189 wrote:

This is a great project! If only there's more blocks implemented…

([variable v] of [Sprite1 v])

Here is one such block. (its opcode is sensing_of with a child sensing_of_object_menu)

perhaps this could be implemented with a general purpose scratch embedding interface, that lets you create blocks with different inputs and fields and whatever for custom stuff or “hacked” blocks, something like embed_scratch(“sensing_of”, inputs = {“OBJECT”: embed_scratch(“sensing_of_object_menu”, inputs={…}, fields={…})}, fields = {“PROPERTY”: }) that takes care of some of the kind of complicated input/field formatting, that uses a shorthand for special blocks you normally don't think of as blocks because in the JSON format they are pretty much always in this shorthand format.

Also, @aspizu if you don't already have a good way of viewing or testing out scratch, I recommend you write a little bookmarklet that lets you view and edit the JSON using projectjson = vm.toJSON() and vm.loadProject(projectjson)

MonkeyBean2 wrote:

Also, @aspizu if you don't already have a good way of viewing or testing out scratch, I recommend you write a little bookmarklet that lets you view and edit the JSON using projectjson = vm.toJSON() and vm.loadProject(projectjson)

I already have a bash script that extracts the project.json file from a .sb3 file and validates it using the built in validation schema used by Scratch editor.
see the file tools/run in the repository.

aspizu wrote:

MonkeyBean2 wrote:

Also, @aspizu if you don't already have a good way of viewing or testing out scratch, I recommend you write a little bookmarklet that lets you view and edit the JSON using projectjson = vm.toJSON() and vm.loadProject(projectjson)

I already have a bash script that extracts the project.json file from a .sb3 file and validates it using the built in validation schema used by Scratch editor.
see the file tools/run in the repository.

Ahh very nice, I'm writing my own scratch targeting compiler as well, and I've often resorted to staring at the scratch-generated JSON and my JSON trying to figure out what exactly it doesn't like, lol.

MonkeyBean2 wrote:

aspizu wrote:

MonkeyBean2 wrote:

Also, @aspizu if you don't already have a good way of viewing or testing out scratch, I recommend you write a little bookmarklet that lets you view and edit the JSON using projectjson = vm.toJSON() and vm.loadProject(projectjson)

I already have a bash script that extracts the project.json file from a .sb3 file and validates it using the built in validation schema used by Scratch editor.
see the file tools/run in the repository.

Ahh very nice, I'm writing my own scratch targeting compiler as well, and I've often resorted to staring at the scratch-generated JSON and my JSON trying to figure out what exactly it doesn't like, lol.

Relatable… Scratch has a lot of very specific requirements for a project to be valid to load.

redspacecat wrote:

Relatable… Scratch has a lot of very specific requirements for a project to be valid to load.

and all of those requirements are formally defined in the JSON schema of the scratch-parser npm module.

https://github.com/scratchfoundation/scratch-parser