Core Concepts
Automata-based programming is a programming paradigm that utilizes finite state machines and other automata models for software development, often employed for tasks involving pattern recognition, parsing, and data validation. It involves defining states and transitions to manage the flow and behavior of a program.
The finite state machine model, with its clearly defined states and transitions, makes it easier to understand the behavior of a system, even for complex applications. It becomes even better, when visualized — this provides a simple and understandable approach to software development. One of the first to implement this in Javascript was XState.
We employ a different approach - visualization-first programming in automata style. Yantrix code defines state/action reactive logic in a declarative fashion, and it can be immediately visualized with MermaidJS, becoming both a graphical specification and a source code for some program. The program itself is obtained in a required language by code generation, which enables reusing more sources between systems and stacks.
The design language allows for basic logic and maths, similar to Excel formulas, being a pretty solid solution for basic programming and business logic implementation. To achieve complex functionality, basic logic elements, such as FSMs, should be interconnected with the help of Events.
Being primary a Typescript solution, the best appliance of Yantrix as of now is Frontend, well-matched to libraries like React and Redux. Due to its codegen approach, Yantrix could work well in Svelte environment and "dumb" s2s Node.js integrations.