ask-lang / ask-old

Ask! is a framework to write Wasm smart contracts for Substrate Frame Pallet-Contracts in AssemblyScript

Ask!

Ask! is a smart contract language designed based on AssemblyScript and running on Substrate FRAME Contracts. Ask! uses the similar way to ink! of designing the procedural macro in the form of eDSL, to write contracts by providing annotation type in AssemblyScript (aka AS). This way can hide the implementation details of the contract, and reduces the difficulty of writing contract. Ask! will be similar to ink!’s existing implementation, and the final product will maintain maximum compatibility with ink!’s existing standards. The WASM and metadata files compiled by Ask! can be deployed on the Substrate chain and run normally.

For example: ink! describe the contract's external call interface through #[ink(constructor)], #[ink(message)].

In Ask!, it will describe the interface through @constructor, @message or other similar annotation.

Riot Group for disscusion: https://app.element.io/#/room/#PatractLabsDev:matrix.org

Overview

Although AS is a new language that uses TS syntax, there are a wide range of developers who use TS as a development language, so the cost of learning AS for these developers is very low. Therefore, we think the Ask! project has a very good application development prospect. Compared with Rust-based ink!, we believe that AS-based Ask! can effectively lower the threshold for contract developers and enrich the contract development ecosystem.

Current proposal for this repo is Patract's proposal for Ask! v0.2, and the report is Post #639

Example

We have some examples under the examples directory. See examples/readme.

Usage

See our document for a quick start.

ask-old's Issues

Error when trying to compile Flipper contract

I followed the instructions of the Ask! quickstart over here to create a simple contract, and when I want to compile it, I get the following error:

❯ npx pl-ask-cli compile contracts/index.ts
Build Starting ······
Build progressing. Generating target files ······
ERROR TS2304: Cannot find name 'ASC_RUNTIME'.

     if (ASC_RUNTIME != Runtime.Incremental) {
         ~~~~~~~~~~~
 in ~lib/array.ts(74,9)

ERROR TS2304: Cannot find name 'ASC_RUNTIME'.

     if (ASC_RUNTIME != Runtime.Incremental) {
         ~~~~~~~~~~~
 in ~lib/array.ts(28,9)

ERROR TS2304: Cannot find name 'ASC_RUNTIME'.

     if (ASC_RUNTIME != Runtime.Incremental) {
         ~~~~~~~~~~~
 in ~lib/arraybuffer.ts(21,9)

FAILURE 3 compile error(s)
Build Done. Targets generated. Target directory: /home/steve/Dev/walchain/flipper-ask/build.

Kusama Treasury | Motion #279 | Patract Hub’s | Ask! v0.2 | Intake review observation

Event message, Hard to interpret the raw bytes, better to decode it.

Complete Report & review form

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lcaPa_cEp912ntmRIY03GtEEh8LESUzIkSLCew206PE/edit?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1H4d_qOCWEzY_W1Pr8_jdP0uMUcrrkVR4utZbKL-yCRg/edit?usp=sharing

Some points need to improve

• We need to explore some ways to extract the ask! code from the as compiler internal. At present, it can be completely written as an independent ts project, in my personal opinion.
• We should define the metadata.json's spec class rather than generate it by template engine. It's hard to maintain and test it.
• The code in some places is hard-coded, and parameterization and configuration should be considered.
• Consider to add some prefix for contract decorator, for avoiding name conflicts.
• Add more unit tests.

Meet a strange compile error when compile flipper example

$ asc --importMemory --initialMemory 2 --maximumMemory 16 --noExportMemory --runtime none --use abort= flipper.ts -O2 -b flipper.wasm -t flipper.wast
ERROR TS2554: Expected 1 arguments, but got 2.  

     v.populateFromBytes(readbuf.valueBytes, 0);
     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
 in ../../src/primitives/readbuffer.ts(18,5)    

FAILURE 1 compile error(s)

still generate .wasm file even compilation fails

When the contract code contains error, the compiler will still generate .wasm file but missing metadata.json. Ideally, no file shall be generated when compilation failed

ask does not print debug info precisely

having this example code
···
import { PackedStorableArray} from "ask-lang";

@contract
class Flipper {
@State flag: bool;

@state
@packed({ "capacity": 128 })
packeArr: PackedStorableArray<UInt128> = new PackedStorableArray<UInt128>();

@state
aArr: PackedStorableArray<UInt128> = new PackedStorableArray<UInt128>();

constructor() {
}

@constructor
default(initFlag: bool): void {
    this.flag = initFlag;
}

@message
flip(): void {
    const v = this.flag;
    this.flag = !v;
}

@message({"mutates": false})
get(): bool {
    return this.flag;
}

}
···
Since we do not import UInt128, this code will not compile.

However, in debug

FAILURE TypeError: Cannot read property 'kind' of null
    at NamedTypeNodeDef.getTypeKind (/home/bonan/repos/ask/ask-cli-test/node_modules/ask-transform/dist/contract/typedef.js:206:21)
    at new NamedTypeNodeDef (/home/bonan/repos/ask/ask-cli-test/node_modules/ask-transform/dist/contract/typedef.js:58:32)
    at FieldDef.resolveField (/home/bonan/repos/ask/ask-cli-test/node_modules/ask-transform/dist/contract/elementdef.js:92:25)
    at new FieldDef (/home/bonan/repos/ask/ask-cli-test/node_modules/ask-transform/dist/contract/elementdef.js:82:15)
    at /home/bonan/repos/ask/ask-cli-test/node_modules/ask-transform/dist/contract/classdef.js:52:39
    at Map.forEach (<anonymous>)
    at ContractInterpreter.ClassInterpreter.resolveFieldMembers (/home/bonan/repos/ask/ask-cli-test/node_modules/ask-transform/dist/contract/classdef.js:50:42)
    at ContractInterpreter.ClassInterpreter [as constructor] (/home/bonan/repos/ask/ask-cli-test/node_modules/ask-transform/dist/contract/classdef.js:44:15)
    at new ContractInterpreter (/home/bonan/repos/ask/ask-cli-test/node_modules/ask-transform/dist/contract/classdef.js:87:28)
    at /home/bonan/repos/ask/ask-cli-test/node_modules/ask-transform/dist/contract/contract.js:44:28

I think this is caused by 2 step transform as the way of compilation

inconsistent data types for function variable and storage variable

  protected _transfer(sender: AccountId, recipient: AccountId, amount: u128): void {
    assert(sender.notEq(AccountId.Null), "ERC20: transfer from the zero address");
    assert(recipient.notEq(AccountId.Null), "ERC20: transfer to the zero address");

    let spenderBalance =this.balanceOf(sender);
    assert(spenderBalance >= amount, "ERC20: transfer amount exceeds balance");

    let senderLeft = spenderBalance - amount;
    this.balances.set(sender, new UInt128(senderLeft));

    let recipientLeft = this.balanceOf(recipient) + amount;
    this.balances.set(recipient, new UInt128(recipientLeft));
    (new Transfer(sender, recipient, amount)).emit();
  }

In function parameters, ask uses u128 but when saving to data storage, it requires casting to UInt128.