Getting started

Install

dartea ships as an npm package with a native binary inside. You need Node.js 18 or newer.

npm install --save-dev @dartea/cli

npm picks the binary for your machine. There are builds for:

• macOS on Apple silicon and Intel
• Linux on x64 and arm64, with glibc

Note

On Linux the binary uses the system libcurl, which almost every distribution already has. Alpine and other musl systems are not supported yet.

Start a project

1. Create the project files.

   npx dartea init

   You get two files:

   • dartea.json
   • Directorysrc/

     • Main.elm a small counter

2. Build a page with the program inside.

   npx dartea make src/Main.elm --output index.html

3. Open index.html in a browser. No server needed.

init refuses to run where a dartea.json or an elm.json already exists, so it never overwrites a project.

Choose an output

The extension of --output decides what you get.

A page

npx dartea make src/Main.elm --output index.html

One HTML file with the script inside. Good for trying things out and for small apps.

A script

npx dartea make src/Main.elm --output app.js

One JavaScript file. Start the program from your own page:

<div id="app"></div>
<script src="app.js"></script>
<script>
  const app = Dartea.Main.init({
    node: document.getElementById("app"),
    flags: null,
  });
</script>

ES modules

npx dartea make src --output build

One .mjs file per Elm module, for bundlers and for setups that load modules natively.

Only check

npx dartea make src/Main.elm --output /dev/null

Type checks everything and writes nothing. Handy in CI and in editors.

Ports and flags

They work as in Elm. The global object is called Dartea, not Elm:

const app = Dartea.Main.init({ flags: JSON.parse(localStorage.getItem("state")) });

app.ports.save.subscribe((state) => {
  localStorage.setItem("state", JSON.stringify(state));
});

Licences in the output

Some modules of the standard library come from elm/core, elm/html, elm/browser, elm/url and elm/http. When any of them ends up in your bundle, dartea writes dartea.LICENSE.txt next to it and adds a one line banner pointing there. Your own code stays yours to license.

Next

• Packages: add a dependency, publish your own.
• Coming from Elm: what to change in an existing project.