2D Programming Language Research

• Client

Private

• Duration

almost 3 years

• Categories

web-app open source

• Technologies

React, Redux, Dexie, WASM, websockets, webRTC, vite, Electron, docker, Playwright

Combination of a spreadsheet visual interface with a language operating on actual cells and tables.

Like functions in Excel without code duplication, like programming language without abstract logic.

Research project on a concept of a new programming language.

I was actively participating in product development, built an Integrated Development Environment for the language and an experimental platform for end-users to create web apps and publish them.

Planarly is a language

Drawing inspiration from programming concepts in tools like Matlab and Numpy, it is built around the table-as-data-structure and designed to be a superior alternative to Excel.

Client had this idea for a long time and made it in as a backend core in C++.

Documentation

Youtube channel with tutorials.

Planarly is a spreadsheet

Familiar table UI capable of intuitive functional programming

Performance was crucial because of several factors causing higher load

• 2d table space is unlimited – user freedom
• html is chosen instead of a canvas – for rapid prototyping
• backend is compiled from C++ to WASM module executed in the browser
• offline capability
• multi-user collaboration is happening in the host browser – for serverless setup

Technologies used in frontend

• React and Material UI
• Redux and toolkit for state management
• redux-saga for side-effects management
• protobuf for backend communication
• websockets for realtime server communication
• webRTC for p2p connectivity
• webpack and later vite build system
• dexie for local cache database
• web workers for WASM module execution
• service worker for offline app capabilities
• linaria for fast css-in-js solution
• playwright and jest for testing
• Github Actions for CI / CD
• DigitalOcean for deployment
• Electron to package for a desktop application

As a team lead I led the implementation of central server approach with the following stack

• Go lang for services
• Kafka as a message broker
• Foundation DB for backend core state persistence
• MySQL for user and cloud storage
• every service in docker container for future scalability

Planarly is a platform

The first use case for the language was selected to be a web app builder. One sheet holds data acting as a database, another sheet executes the business logic and a third one enables styling, similar to Webflow‘s styling panel. Click publish – and you have a fully functional web app.

Multiple iterations were tried to build a prototype.