Haxe ToolkitA multi-platform development solution

by Romuald Halasz, 29.08.2014

A little bit about me

- started work with QuickBasic, BPascal, C++- Visual Studio 2005, OpenGL, DirectX- PHP, HTML, CSS, JavaScript- Flash, Flex- Haxe, NME, OpenFl- currently hosting TGD Meetup

Presentation structure

Introduction to Haxe- language features

Cross-platform aspects- specific APIs,target specific platforms

Games- available tools, live demo

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 (platform specific)

- 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/

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

Focusing on Gamesavailable tools, the stack, frameworks

Light Media Engine - Lime

abstraction layer

one codebase for many cross-platform targets

available targets:Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Tizen, Emscripten, HTML5

Lime - How does it work ?

Exposes:OpenGL, Audio, Input, windowing, native features

Stack:- CLI tools: manage build,package,install,run

- native layer: rendering,sound,platform core

(C++, Java and Objective-C)

- Haxe wrapper - exposes this functionality, abstract differences

OpenFl - Open Flash Library

Cross-platform Flash APIPowered by LimeHardware rendering, compiles to native C++Reaches more platforms than Adobe AIRHaxe as ActionScript 4Platforms:Windows,Mac,Linux,iOS,Android,BlackBerry,Tizen,HTML5,Firefox OS,Flash

OpenFl-compatible libraries

HaxeFlixel - Haxe port of FlixelHaxePunk - Haxe port of FlashPunkNape Physics Engine - 2D rigid body physicsBox2DActuate - tween animation libraryetc.

Available Editors and IDEs

FlashDevelopSublime Text - plugin availableIntelliJ IDEA - plugin available

HaxePunk Framework

OpenFl-based port of FlashPunkDesigned for gamesOpen-sourceFeatures- rendering: Image, SpriteMap, Canvas, Emitter, GraphicList etc.

- input: Keyboard, Mouse, Joystick, Multi-Touch

- tweens: Motion, Sound, Misc. (Angle, Color, Num, Var etc.)

Creating a new project

Creating the config file: XML- meta, window (w/h,fps), source(package,libs), assets path

Scenes- entity containers, switch between

Entities- primary actors, handle display, collision etc.

Thank you!...now on to the demo!