Create Blocks ~ Extending Ardublockly

(This is a stub of the documentation for the functionality included to easily extend Ardublockly to support new blocks)

(Introductory paragraph should go here)

(Top view description of the extensibility options should go here)

Adding Pin Types

(this has not yet been implemented)

Blockly.Arduino.PinTypes.add('PIN_NAME');

Adding a new Data Types

Blockly.Types.addType(typeName, basicType, compatibleTypes)

• typeName: An String to identify the name of the type.
• basicType: A Blockly.Type.BasicTypes object that defined its basic type
• compatibleTypes: An array of Blockly.Type.Types that this Type can be compatible with.

(Add a note about how compatibility does not go both ways, e.g. a block that takes a Number can also take a compatible boolean, but a block that takes a boolean does not necessarily take a Number)

Extend other blocks to have a new block as compatible: (Not yet implemented)

Blockly.Types.addAsCompatible(originType, compatibleType)

• originType: A Blockly.Type.Types for which to extend its compatibility list.
• compatibleType: The Blockly.Type.Types to add as compatible.

Basic Type

(Explain that a basic type is the most fundamental "type unit", so a new basic type should not be something that could be "derived" from an existing one. For example, a "long integer" is a type of NUMBER so a new Type for that should be created instead of a new "basic type", and a "colour" cannot be represented by any of the current basic types, so it should create its own.)

Current basic types:

Blockly.Type.BasicTypes.TEXT      // General text string type
Blockly.Type.BasicTypes.BOOLEAN   // Can only have two values, generally 0 for false, or 1 for true
Blockly.Type.BasicTypes.NUMBER    // A general number type
Blockly.Type.BasicTypes.DECIMAL   // Number type for numbers with a fractional part
Blockly.Type.BasicTypes.ARRAY     // Array of any type of items
Blockly.Type.BasicTypes.COLOUR    // For the colour blocks, not used in Ardublockly
Blockly.Type.BasicTypes.NULL      // Used as a "no type" wild card natively
Blockly.Type.BasicTypes.UNDEF     // Can be used to delegate type assignment

Add a new Basic Type: (Not yet implemented)

Blockly.Types.addBasicType('TYPE_NAME')