Haxe lang – build cross-platform application with fast cross-compiler | Hacker News Reader

Haxe lang – build cross-platform application with fast cross-compiler

haxe.org

94 pointsAlifatisk21 comments

Its so positive to see a language that started as an alternative to ActionScript for making Flash games has stayed alive long after the demise of Flash. Its still used and loved because those using it have remarkable velocity.

They even support React Native https://github.com/haxe-react/react-native

Back in the days I've used to write libraries, generic algorithms and functions targeting ActionScript 3 (Flash) in HaXe to be able to quickly unit test them, but use them in the actual Flash projects. To unit test AS3/Flash code directly was a pain. HaXe speed up the dev workflow tremendously. Having very good memories. Now I just use modern JavaScript and TypeScript directly. But HaXe has a warm place in my heart and I am glad it still exists.

Really cool projects made in Haxe: https://oimo.io/works

My favourite is this one: https://oimo.io/works/life/

Also, the video game Dead Cells, which might even be the reason the language exists. It is an exquisitely designed and executed game which illustrates the passion of its dev team

My personal favorite is Dead Cells, of course :)

The lead dev uses a skeleton project with the Heaps framework for all his games: https://github.com/deepnight/gameBase

And he also created a very comprehensive series of tutorials for beginners: https://deepnight.net/category/haxe/

I've been meaning to deep dive into it as it looks super fun, but things like laziness get in the way...

I like Haxe, mostly, it's a nice language, built by passionate people. Typescript has replaced it in our cooperate projects, but I still love building tools in Haxe. Just to keep it fun.

I haven't touched Haxe but I still find it interesting, are there any downsides or trade-offs I should be aware off? Maybe something that bothers you that needs a workaround?

Apologies but I could only think of a trade-on.

Haxe makes it really easy to get started and get a feel for things, just have a go! I found the opposite with Typescript, where it seemed like I had to already be a javascript developer to use it.

Haxe compiles to a lot of languages. Some of those language targets are better maintained than others. I've definitely had situations where some usage of esoteric Haxe features (like, deep/complex generics alongside runtime polymorphism) compiled fine to one target but compiled to invalid or incorrect code on another.

(Interestingly, in my experience the C++ target is rock solid. Though that experience is from many years ago.)

In any case, the best source for known compiler bugs is always gonna be GitHub:

https://github.com/HaxeFoundation/haxe/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is...

I posted this 5 days ago, but it says 1 hour ago, weird.

Second chance pool

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26998308

Ohhh, completely forgot about it. I hope this gives Haxe more spotlight, it's a really cool tech.

How does the js compilation compare to dart?

A quick search gave me the following benchmark result, Haxe compiles to js faster than Dart and outputs a smaller js bundle (https://github.com/damoebius/HaxeBench?tab=readme-ov-file#re...)

Haxe is the coolest project. I love to see it posted.

No news from 2021 to 2024 are bad news.

The latest news is from 2024-09-08, https://haxe.io/roundups/717

What/who is haxe.io?

The Haxe blog[0] has been quiet since 2021, which I assume the parent comment was referring to. Not sure what the 2024 news is though...

[0] https://haxe.org/blog/

Oh, Idk how the blog differ from the roundups, but they’ve been pretty active with the posts there.

I found it through the website aswell so I guess it’a something from the Haxe team.

No, but the latest release is from August, so not dead anyway.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com