Cross-platform DevelopmentIntroducing the Haxe Toolkit
by Romuald Halasz, 02.08.2014
A little bit about me
- started work with QuickBasic, BPascal, C++- Visual Studio 2005, OpenGL, DirectX- PHP, HTML, CSS, JavaScript- Flash, Flex- Haxe, NME- currently hosting TGD Meetup
Presentation structure
Introduction to Haxe- language features
Cross-platform aspects- specific APIs- target specific platforms
Getting acquainted with Haxe
A bit of history:
22 October 2005 by French developer Nicolas Cannasse
Haxe 2.0 was released in July 2008,
Haxe 3 was released in May 2013
open source
Toolkit:
- language
- standard library
- compiler
Language Specifics
- based on ECMAScript standard, similar to ActionScript
- strictly typed
- object oriented
- conditional compilation
- inline calls
- metadata
- type params, constraints, variance
- etc. (pattern matching, abstract types, string interpolation …)
- more info: http://haxe.org/documentation/introduction/language-features.html
What does it look like ?class Test {
static function main():Void {
var people:Array = [
"Elizabeth" => "Programming",
"Joel" => "Design"
];
for (name in people.keys()) {
var job = people[name];
trace('$name does $job for a living!');
}
}
}
Language Architecture
- Haxe API- platform-specific APIs- libraries- frameworks
Haxe Standard Library
- general classes- system (requires platform compilation)- target specific APIs (cpp, cs, flash, php etc.)
Haxelib
- library manager- CLI tool- browse and download libraries: http://lib.haxe.org/
Haxe and multiple platforms
Going cross-platform!Let’s dive right into it.
first, a bit of context...
Targets and Use Cases
Name Kind Static typed Sys Use Cases
Flash byte code Yes No Games, Mobile
Neko byte code No Yes Web, CLI
ActionScript 3 source Yes Yes Games, Mobile, API
JavaScript source No No Web, Desktop, API
PHP source No Yes Web
C++ source Yes Yes Games, CLI, Mobile, Desktop
Java source Yes Yes CLI, Mobile, Desktop
C# source Yes Yes Mobile, Desktop
Python source No Yes CLI, Web, Desktop
Platform Use Cases
We will focus on:- Mobile- Desktop- Web- Games!
Library Spotlight: Lime
“A foundational Haxe framework for cross-platform
native development.”
- abstraction layer
- compile code to C++, JavaScript etc.
Structure
- CLI tools - platform-specific process
- native layer (C++, Objective-C, Java)
- Haxe wrapper
OpenFl, NME
- provide support for creating
cross-platform interfaces
- flash-like API (display, events,
text, external, net etc.)
Supported platforms
Take your pick!
OpenFl in practice
Targets:
Desktop: Windows, Mac, Linux
Mobile: iOS, Android, BlackBerry
Web: Tizen, Emscripten, HTML5
Exposes:
OpenGL, Audio, Input
Windowing
Useful native features
Haxe and Mobile
Targets: C++, HTML5Tools: - cross-platform APIs- libraries: StablexUI, HaxeUI
For iOS and Android: Basis
HTML5 target works with PhoneGap
Targeting iOS, Android, BlackBerryAndroid:
- Android SDK/NDK, Apache ANT, Java JDK
- supported by lime
iOS:
- Xcode required
- target Flash, publish using AIR
BlackBerry:
- OpenFl is compatible with BlackBerry Tablet SDK
- supported by lime
Desktop Targets
Targets: C++, HTML5Tools: Libraries: Waxe (Haxe + wxW)
HTML5 targets work with Node-socket- app runtime- based on Chromium and Node.jshttps://github.com/rogerwang/node-webkit
Targeting Windows, Mac, LinuxWindows:
- Neko (no dependencies)
- C++, Visual Studio required
Mac:
- Neko
- C++, requires Xcode
Linux:
- g++, gcc-multilib required
!! Targeting restricted to current platform
Haxe on the Web
Client targets:- JavaScript, ActionScript 3
Server targets:- PHP, Node, Neko
Haxe Web - clients
Haxe and jQuery:
- Haxe js.jQuery API- jQueryExternForHaxe (library)- more recent jQuery version
- https://github.com/andyli/jQueryExternForHaxe
jQuery Example$(document).ready(function(){
$("#myDiv").hide();
});
import JQuery;
class Main {
static public function main():Void {
new JQuery(function():Void {
new JQuery("#myDiv").hide();
});
}
}
Haxe Web - servers
Haxe JS Kithttps://github.com/clemos/haxe-js-kit
includes Node.js
- NPM libraries:
Mongoose, Connect.js, Express.js, Socket.io, Passport.js,
Atom-shell
Haxenode- Node.js port for Haxe
http://haxenode.herokuapp.com/
Haxenode Example (node)Node.js:
var http = require('http');
var server = http.createServer(
function (req, res) {
res.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type': 'text/plain'});
res.end('Hello World\\n');
}
);
server.listen(1337, "127.0.0.1");
console.log('Server running at http://127.0.0.1:1337/');
Haxenode Example (haxe)import js.Node;
class Haxenode {
public static function main() {
var server = Node.http.createServer(function(req:NodeHttpServerReq, res:NodeHttpServerResp) {
res.setHeader("Content-Type","text/plain");
res.writeHead(200);
res.end('Hello World\\n');
}
);
server.listen(1337,"localhost");
trace('Server running at http://127.0.0.1:1337/');
}
}
And last but not least, Games!
Libraries:Frameworks: HaxeFlixel, awe6, HaxePunk
A close look at HaxePunk
More information
haxe.orgopenfl.orghaxepunk.com
Thank you very much !
