Thanks.
The Haxe language gives you far more flexibility and performance optimizations, since it is generating optimized native source or byte code. The cost is that you have to learn the Haxe language.
Many people on this discussion are criticizing the java-style syntax of Haxe. I think most of these negative feelings are due to the excessive boilerplate required for many Java classes. Haxe does away with a lot of boilerplate code using type inference and other modern compiler techniques. http://haxe.org/ref/type_infer
You can remove even more boilerplate with macro libraries for shorthand class declarations: https://github.com/back2dos/tinkerbell/wiki/tink_lang
There are many other tricks you can use to define behavior without resorting to complex inheritance or class definitions. One of my favorites is the "using" declaration: http://haxe.org/manual/using
So, in my opinion, the cost of learning Haxe is very low if you already know Java or Actionscript. The cost of coding/writing Haxe is also very low, since you're not required to write boilerplate code.
Finally, it's worth mentioning that the Haxe developers are not just trying to gloss over the technicalities of each underlying platform in order to get things working. They really understand the behavior of each platform, and make many conscientious decisions based on considerations for performance and cross-platform consistency. I've learned more from the Haxe language google group about each target (js quirks, java limitations, etc.) than I have from the Java, JS, Actionscript groups themselves: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/haxelang Many people have remarked that simply following the Haxe development list has made them a better programmer.
There are some annoying differences between the different targets but it's >99% the same and you can work around the differences.
Thanks.
http://www.ludamix.com/apps/triad-synth/index.html
Haven't done an official port yet, but one of the NME devs did look into using it to test the SampleDataEvent API on other targets. I did get it compiling but not running, so the ports probably won't be a huge project.
I like a lot of things about Haxe. The syntax is more streamlined than traditional curly-bracers. The type system can massively help with refactoring. It's "honest" about the limitations of targets - you get the APIs pretty much exactly as they are on the target itself. The compiler is well-implemented and updated all the time. It's just a very productive environment, and although it used to have lots of maturity/ecosystem issues, increasingly those aren't a major hurdle, at least for the game space.
Also, the Haxe community is full of great hackers and incredibly helpful.
Haxe isn't a game engine. It's a language that compiles into other languages.
While compiling to JavaScript obviously results in JavaScript code (which is what the browser can understand), but compiling to Flash does not compile to ActionScript 3 and then the flash assembly (the .swf file). It goes straight from HaXe to the flash assembly.
Likewise, the Java target (which is still in development) won't merely translate HaXe into Java and then compile that Java. I've seen solutions like that and it's not fast or elegant.
Second, I don't see a mention of a physics engine builtin to haXe anywhere on the features page,
where are you seeing that?
Haxe is a language and you can browse the libs available for its compile targets at http://lib.haxe.org/.
If you want to find out more about a framework that uses Haxe and is oriented towards mobile gaming (but not only towards that) checkout HaxeNME.
If you want a nice mature game engine lib built for Haxe try awe6 in the search at http://lib.haxe.org.
Haxe isn't lacking in the game engine department, thing is you can use Haxe with externals for node.js, a lib like noxe that extends haxe to node or simply use whatever javascript lib you feel like and output js. Or use the pure data lib to interact with mobile. Haxe isn't restricted to gaming. It's just one of the things the language allows for.
Haxe does look great and for this particular case I wonder how Haxe NME's performance compares to the lua frameworks like Corona and Gideros for mobile development specifically.