3 ms·

Is something like Haxe really that in demand? I haven't heard of Haxe much (the last time was probably on here) but in theory it seems like a great idea. I wo

by sbarre 13y ago

Is something like Haxe really that in demand? I haven't heard of Haxe much (the last time was probably on here) but in theory it seems like a great idea. I wonder why it's not more popular?

Mikeb85 13y ago
Probably because JS can run directly in browsers, and can also be made into mobile/desktop apps with Webkit views. Added bonus for JS is that many languages compile to it (CoffeeScript, LispyScript, ClojureScript, even Haxe, OCaml, Haskell, C++), DEs use it for scripting (Gnome, KDE, Windows 8). I think it isn't more popular because it's associated with Flash, whereas JS is becoming the new default for the web.
- ido 13y ago
  performance is still a big issue on mobile devices (I have worked on several commercial html5 games made for firefox-os, but they also work on ios and android, where you'd also have native options). There is a huge - HUGE - performance difference factor and while that doesn't matter for every app it matters quite often for games (even simple 2d games in the style of angry-birds). html5 on the desktop on the other hand is plenty fast.
thorum 13y ago
I personally wouldn't do any medium-to-large JavaScript project in anything but Haxe at this point. > I wonder why it's not more popular? It's a relatively young language (8 years old, but it's only been mature for a fraction of that). I think it just hasn't reached critical mass yet.
- gngeal 13y ago
  Doesn't OED4 use it as the platform it's built on?
- sbarre 13y ago
  Very interesting.. I hadn't thought of this particular use-case (targeting Javascript)... You've had good success with cross-browser issues?
  - seabrookmx 13y ago
    HaxeJS comes with a built in JQuery extern, so you can basically make a page the same way you would with a JS/JQuery frontend, but you get the language feature and type checking benefits of Haxe. JQuery should handle all your front-end cross-browser issues. Also, you can do your backend in Haxe, and target the NekoVM (via mod_neko (single thread per request) or mod_tora (multi-threaded) for Apache) or NodeJS. Haxe could do this long before Dart showed up.
camus 13y ago
Ok , been haxing for 5/6 years. I think that it is not that popular because , while the language is very powerfull , some aspects of it are very complicated ( Generics , Macros , expressions , ... ) . Especially for beginners. The docs are a mess , i tried to edit them a few time , but they should change the way it is organised. In my opinion a WIKI is never the proper solution for a doc. 1 person should take care of the docs and centralise every demands, with the help of Github or whatever. BUT Adobe is giving up on flash , and HAXE is the only solution that is good enough as a remplacement for flash games , apps ,etc ... We often say Jobs or HTML5 killed flash , but the truth is Adobe KILLED flash itself. Frankly Adobe should sell Flash , they did an awfull job with it. How many Businesses kill their own succesfull ( 90% install base on desktop ) ? aside from Borland with Delphi ( the biggest waste in the history of computer languages , Delphi was just awesome ) , only Adobe.

by sbarre 13y ago

Is something like Haxe really that in demand? I haven't heard of Haxe much (the last time was probably on here) but in theory it seems like a great idea. I wonder why it's not more popular?

Mikeb85 13y ago

Probably because JS can run directly in browsers, and can also be made into mobile/desktop apps with Webkit views. Added bonus for JS is that many languages compile to it (CoffeeScript, LispyScript, ClojureScript, even Haxe, OCaml, Haskell, C++), DEs use it for scripting (Gnome, KDE, Windows 8). I think it isn't more popular because it's associated with Flash, whereas JS is becoming the new default for the web.

ido 13y ago
performance is still a big issue on mobile devices (I have worked on several commercial html5 games made for firefox-os, but they also work on ios and android, where you'd also have native options). There is a huge - HUGE - performance difference factor and while that doesn't matter for every app it matters quite often for games (even simple 2d games in the style of angry-birds). html5 on the desktop on the other hand is plenty fast.

thorum 13y ago

I personally wouldn't do any medium-to-large JavaScript project in anything but Haxe at this point. > I wonder why it's not more popular? It's a relatively young language (8 years old, but it's only been mature for a fraction of that). I think it just hasn't reached critical mass yet.

gngeal 13y ago
Doesn't OED4 use it as the platform it's built on?
sbarre 13y ago
Very interesting.. I hadn't thought of this particular use-case (targeting Javascript)... You've had good success with cross-browser issues?
- seabrookmx 13y ago
  HaxeJS comes with a built in JQuery extern, so you can basically make a page the same way you would with a JS/JQuery frontend, but you get the language feature and type checking benefits of Haxe. JQuery should handle all your front-end cross-browser issues. Also, you can do your backend in Haxe, and target the NekoVM (via mod_neko (single thread per request) or mod_tora (multi-threaded) for Apache) or NodeJS. Haxe could do this long before Dart showed up.

camus 13y ago

Ok , been haxing for 5/6 years. I think that it is not that popular because , while the language is very powerfull , some aspects of it are very complicated ( Generics , Macros , expressions , ... ) . Especially for beginners. The docs are a mess , i tried to edit them a few time , but they should change the way it is organised. In my opinion a WIKI is never the proper solution for a doc. 1 person should take care of the docs and centralise every demands, with the help of Github or whatever. BUT Adobe is giving up on flash , and HAXE is the only solution that is good enough as a remplacement for flash games , apps ,etc ... We often say Jobs or HTML5 killed flash , but the truth is Adobe KILLED flash itself. Frankly Adobe should sell Flash , they did an awfull job with it. How many Businesses kill their own succesfull ( 90% install base on desktop ) ? aside from Borland with Delphi ( the biggest waste in the history of computer languages , Delphi was just awesome ) , only Adobe.