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haXe Introduction

Documentation > haXe Introduction

haXe (pronounced as hex) is an open source programming language

While most other languages are bound to their own platform (Java to the JVM, C# to .Net, ActionScript to the Flash Player), haXe is a multiplatform language.

It means that you can use haXe to target the following platforms :

  • Javascript : You can compile a haXe program to a single .js file. You can access the typed browser DOM APIs with autocompletion support, and all the dependencies will be resolved at compilation time.
  • Flash : You can compile a haXe program to a .swf file. haXe is compatible with Flash Players 6 to 10, with either "old" Flash 8 API or newest AS3/Flash9+ API. haXe offers very good performance and language features to develop Flash content.
  • NekoVM : You can compile a haXe program to NekoVM bytecode. This can be used for server-side programming such as dynamic webpages (using mod_neko for Apache) and also for command-line or desktop applications, since NekoVM can be embedded and extended with some other DLL.
  • PHP : You can compile a haXe program to .php files. This will enable you to use a high level strictly-typed language such as haXe while keeping full compatibility with your existing server platform and libraries.
  • C++ : You can now generate C++ code from your haXe source code, with the required Makefiles. This is very useful for creating native applications, for instance in iPhone development.
  • C# and Java targets are coming soon! (from @cwaneck)

The idea behind haXe is to let the developer choose the best platform for a given job. In general, this is not easy to do, because every new platform comes with its own programming language. What haXe provides you with is:

  • a standardized language with many good features
  • a standard library (including Date, Xml, Math...) that works the same on all platforms
  • platform-specific libraries : the full APIs for a given platform are accessible from haXe

haXe is useful for many different reasons. You might be wondering why use haXe?

Want to learn more about haXe ? Access the documentation.

version #10299, modified 2011-03-11 11:17:12 by stickupkid
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