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Facebook Open-Sources Hack Codegen
Facebook has open-sourced Hack Codegen, a library for automatically generating Hack code.
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Facebook has open-sourced its library for automatically generating Hack code, a more scalable version of PHP.
Facebook developed Hack for its HipHop Virtual Machine (HHVM), which interoperates with PHP. Hack reconciles the fast development cycle of PHP with the discipline provided by static typing. Hack also provides instantaneous type checking by analyzing a developer's files as they edit them.
Facebook says HVM uses a just-in-time (JIT) compilation approach to achieve superior performance while maintaining the development flexibility that PHP provides.
Hack "offers the best of both dynamically typed and statically typed languages," say Facebook's Julien Verlaguet and Alok Menghrajani, who note it will be valuable to projects of all sizes. Hack aims to improve code quality as code volumes scale up, and improve the performance of Web applications.
"Hack and HVVM have improved the state of PHP and in the process improved the state of the art in server-side Web software development," says IDC analyst Al Hilwa.
Hack Codegen automatically generates Hack code. "Being able to generate code through automated code generation allows programmers to increase the level of abstraction by making frameworks that are declarative and that are translated into high-quality Hack code," says Facebook's Alejandro Marcu.
From eWeek
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