Dex

A component framework for Cot. Svelte's compiler-driven reactivity, compiled to WebAssembly instead of JavaScript.

Named after Dexter, a faithful 14-year-old husky.

What is Dex?

Dex is a faithful port of Svelte to the Cot programming language. Where Svelte compiles .svelte components to optimized JavaScript, Dex compiles .dex components to optimized WebAssembly.

component Counter {
    var count: int = 0

    <button class="btn" on:click={count += 1}>
        "Clicked ${count} times"
    </button>
}

The Dex compiler analyzes reactive dependencies at compile time and generates Wasm that performs surgical DOM updates — no virtual DOM, no runtime framework, no JavaScript bundle.

Why?

React ships a 40KB runtime to diff virtual DOM trees at runtime. Svelte proved that reactivity is a compiler problem, not a runtime problem — but it still compiles to JavaScript. Dex takes the next step: compile to Wasm.

The result is smaller bundles, faster execution, and a real type system — with the same developer experience that made Svelte the most loved web framework.

Status

Early development. See VISION.md for the full architecture and roadmap.

Project Structure

src/                    Dex compiler and runtime (Cot)
references/svelte/      Svelte source (reference implementation)

Related Projects

• cot — The Cot programming language
• cot.land — Cot package registry (server-side Cot)
• svelte — Reference implementation