Branding/Marketing website

[fullofcaffeine]

I think this is one of the best libraries out there for web and general js development with Haxe, because let's be honest, UFront is a niche framework currently and is not really under active development.

I suggest we brand this over and create a slick marketing site. The name could changed maybe, but I think haxe-js-kit is fine.

Food for though! What do you guys think?

[clemos]

That would be great :)
@MatthijsKamstra's tutorials are already a pretty solid starting point: http://matthijskamstra.github.io/haxenode/index.html
I've been thinking about at least moving Haxe/JS related stuff to a dedicated Github organisation.
I'll move haxe-js-kit there, probably split it to different projects.
There is also this npm-haxe package that I've been working on: https://github.com/clemos/npm-haxe (allows to install haxe and haxelib via npm).

[MatthijsKamstra]

I have no problem moving my tutorials to a dedicated Haxe Javascript organisation.
Probably need to do some rewriting (I think I wrote it from my personal perspective)

If needed I will help with the "slick marketing site"

[fullofcaffeine]

That's cool. Would love to contribute.

My main point is that it's quite confusing to navigate the Haxe js
ecosystem as of now. I think haxe-js-kit should be the point of entry, the
"killer app".

On Mon, Jan 25, 2016 at 2:16 PM, Matthijs Kamstra notifications@github.com
wrote:

I have no problem moving my tutorials to a dedicated Haxe Javascript
organisation.
Probably need to do some rewriting (I think I wrote it from my personal
perspective)

If needed I will help with the "slick marketing site"

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#108 (comment).

[MatthijsKamstra]

I agree, one point would make it easier!

[kevinresol]

+1

[fullofcaffeine]

I can't help but compare with the Rails approach. Starting with Rails is, to this day, extremely simple and straightofward (this article provides some updated perspective on that http://bit.ly/1HZJ4S5).

If we can somehow sell the haxe-js-kit as an improved way of doing Javascript, then we'll be good. People will often fallback to Javascript/ES6 unless they have a very good reason to use Haxe, and I think the Haxe machinery can provide a Rails-like experience (with generators, DSLs, simple package management -- even if only an abstraction over existing solutions, etc).

I also think the static typing to be an advantage there.

Productivity still rules. Who wants to be debugging something in a friday night when you can go out and have some beers? :)

[fullofcaffeine]

I think we should invite @ciscoheat to the conversation, since he has been quite active in the Haxe web sphere, too!

[fullofcaffeine]

Oh sorry Clément, I meant @ciscoheat :)

[ciscoheat]

Thanks @fullofcaffeine ! I had hoped for more interest in merging the top node libs for Haxe, but when that wasn't very interesting I took the back seat. I'm using haxe-js-kit and sends PR when I add something, but not much more until there is more consensus about haxe/node in general. Anything changed in this area lately?

[fullofcaffeine]

@ciscoheat But it's been merged no?

[gamedevsam]

+1 for this, I'm fairly new to web dev, but been using haxe for a few years. Would be great to have a sort of boilerplate template for web apps built with Haxe. I recently made an electron app (not with Haxe sadly), and the electron-boilerplate was essential in getting that running quickly.

[fantoine]

Just to give my 2 cents here.

I think this library provides lot of useful externs but the whole thing maybe restructured to provide a more organized externs marketplace.

Let's imagine a full dedicated github organization which provides externs, not only for js target, but for all haxe supported targets. It could become THE place to go to get an haxe extern, just like DefinitelyTyped is the reference for TypeScript.

Moreover, I think splitting each module to several repositories could give some advantages:

• You can easily use a branch for a module without breaking other ones.
• You can integrate tests or documentation specific to a given module.
• You can load only the modules you need.

With this organization I can easily imagine a lot of things which could make it easy to use externs (a cli tool to haxelib git a given extern repo, a website to list search available externs,...).

It could also be easier to merge stuff from other libs.

Anyway, I'd be glad to help in this way if other people are also interested.

[fullofcaffeine]

I've been thinking about it and, before any website, I think what we need next is a tool -- A generator for the most common projects.

Adding more externs and abstracting more stuff with macros is a good way to sell haxe-js-kit-- @ciscoheat is adding new externs everyday for example, and that's great :)

However, the main challenge is bootstrapping.I spent quite a bit of time figuring out how to use webpack with my haxe-js-kit based project, for example. It uses Angular on the front and rails in the back. Next time I need something similar, I want to be able to quickly generate a usable skeleton, maybe even with deployment facilities built-in (so it's quick to get from prototype -> production).

I think we can use yoeman (?) for that purpose and provide some tasks that can be used to create a new project based on templates (blog, cms, or maybe lower level like express+angular, or with/without components like with authentication, permissions, etc). I'm not very familiar with yoeman though.

Let me know what you guys think.

[clemos]

@fullofcaffeine
Well I gave a shot at Haxe/JS + Yeoman here : https://github.com/clemos/generator-haxe-webapp
Honestly, I've never really used it, because I finally found Yeoman pretty useless.
But you're right, bootstrapping would be nice.

My bigger plan, currently, is to release a clean NPM package containing just the Haxe compiler + Haxelib, properly configured: https://github.com/clemos/npm-haxe
IMHO, it's a very important thing to have to compete with Typescript, because currently, installing Haxe is already a huge show stopper.
The NPM I've been working on does require Neko, which is already a plus.
(About neko dependency, see: https://twitter.com/andy_li/status/702894357104427008)

Having a clean Haxe NPM package opens the door to creating any kind of dev tool (bootstrapping, build tools, dependency management, etc...) in Haxe, all delivered via npm (I've seen @back2dos do crazy things with haxelib + macros, some of which should definitely be released somehow).

I've also recently started to work on Visual Studio Code support, focusing on Haxe/JS.
First, because it looks like a great editor (superior to Sublime Text and free/open source),
but also to compete with Typescript (VSC has integrated Typescript building, debugging...)