Merge pull request #202 from ebeetles/week01

Elwin Li - Week 1 GSoC report for JSeditor updates (was deleted)

Author: sum2it

src/constants/MarkdownFiles/posts/2025-06-07-gsoc-25-Elwin-Li-week01.md

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+---
+title: "JavaScript Editor Updates"
+excerpt: "This is a Template to write Blog Posts for weekly updates"
+category: "DEVELOPER NEWS"
+date: "2025-06-07"
+slug: "JSeditor-updates"
+author: "Elwin Li"
+description: "GSoC Contributor"
+tags: "gsoc25,sugarlabs,week1,javaScript editor"
+image: "assets/Images/GSOC.png"
+---
+
+<!-- markdownlint-disable -->
+
+# Week 1 Progress Report by Elwin Li
+
+**Project:** [Advanced JavaScript Editor with MusicBlocks Interactions](https://github.com/sugarlabs/musicblocks/tree/gsoc-2025/elwin)  
+**Mentors:** [Walter Bender](https://github.com/walterbender), [Anindya Kundu](https://github.com/meganindya), [Devin Ulibarri](https://github.com/pikurasa)
+
+**Reporting Period:** 2025-06-02 - 2025-06-07
+
+---
+
+## Goals for This Week
+
+- **Goal:** Complete and deploy code to blocks functionality.
+
+---
+
+## This Week’s Achievements
+
+**Refactored code to be config driven**  
+I refactored my code for code to block conversion to use a JSON config file so that the logic behind the conversion is as generic as possible.
+An example config for a block is shown below:
+
+         {
+            "name": "repeat",
+            "comments": "Repeat block in the Flow palette",
+            "arguments": [
+                {
+                    "type": "NumberExpression"
+                }
+            ],
+            "ast": {
+                "identifiers": [
+                    {
+                        "property": "type",
+                        "value": "ForStatement"
+                    }
+                ],
+                "argument_properties": [
+                    "test.right"
+                ],
+                "children_properties": [
+                    "body.body"
+                ]
+            },
+            "blocklist_connections": [
+                "parent_or_previous_sibling",
+                "argument",
+                "first_child",
+                "next_sibling"
+            ],
+            "default_vspaces": {
+                "argument": 1
+            }
+         }
+
+This config is for the repeat block, as conveniently stated in the comments section for readability. 
+There are several pieces of information we need for a block for the conversion code to work:
+- The name of the block
+- The number of arguments, and their types
+- The associated AST information
+   - The identifiers, or the path to that block (needed for matching)
+   - The paths to the argument and children properties from the AST
+- The connections the block has in the blocklist [parent/previous sibling, argument(s), child(ren), next sibling]
+- vspace information
+
+Based on these pieces of information, the conversion code is generic enough to parse through and translate into blocklist format.
+This is very important because this means that adding a new block for support is now as simple as adding a config like this to the JSON file.
+
+---
+
+## Challenges & How I Overcame Them
+
+- **Challenge:** Coming up with the config format.
+
+  **Solution:** Lots of trial and error, and using many different examples to make the code generic.
+
+- **Challenge:** Argument handling was not working with configuration.
+
+  **Solution:** Added a separate section in the config file for argument blocks, but made it as close to other blocks as possible.
+
+---
+
+## Key Learnings
+
+- Deepened understanding of JSON configuration files.
+- Improved skills in **debugging**, **code design**, and **collaboration workflows**.
+
+---
+
+## Next Week’s Roadmap
+
+- Fully add all blocks that we want to support for code to block conversion, with corresponding documentation and error handling.
+- Move on to next phase of the JSeditor project, which is the debugger
+- Familiarize myself with the necessary files I will need to work with for the debugger
+- Work on getting breakpoints to work
+
+---
+
+## Acknowledgments
+
+Thank you to my mentors, the Sugar Labs community, and fellow GSoC contributors for ongoing support.
+
+---
+
+## Connect with Me
+
+- GitHub: [@ebeetles](https://github.com/ebeetles)
+- Gmail: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])
+- LinkedIn: [Elwin Li](https://www.linkedin.com/in/elwinsli/)
+
+---