Hack - Why Should I Care?

In March, Facebook released a new language called Hack. It adds static typing, generics and lambda expressions on top of the rest of the familiar PHP syntax. In addition, it allows for gradual adoption of these features and continued interoperability with existing PHP code. But why should you care? Do you need to work in a massive environment like Facebook to reap the rewards of learning a new language? I'll make a strong case that Hack (and HHVM) are worth your time, give you a good demo of the language and show you how to get started. I don't work for Facebook, but I dove into Hack the day it was announced and I've continued to follow its development with great interest. I have applications in production running on Hack and I'm eager to show PHP developers of all skill levels why it's worth their time to give Hack a look.

Transcript

1. Hack
 Why Should I Care? Joel Clermont
 @jclermont
2. What to expect • No insider secrets
3. What to expect • No insider secrets • High-level tour of Hack’s unique features
4. What to expect • No insider secrets • High-level tour of Hack’s unique features • Make the case why you should try it out
5. What to expect • No insider secrets • High-level tour of Hack’s unique features • Make the case why you should try it out • Show you how to get started
6. What to expect • No insider secrets • High-level tour of Hack’s unique features • Make the case why you should try it out • Show you how to get started • Answer all your questions
7. Quick Tour of Hack
8. Type Annotations
9. Type Annotations
 Where do we need them?
10. Type Annotations
 What do we get out of it? • Easier for developers to understand intent
11. Type Annotations
 What do we get out of it? • Easier for developers to understand intent • Correctness of our type system
12. Type Annotations
 What do we get out of it? • Easier for developers to understand intent • Correctness of our type system • Easier to refactor
13. Doesn’t PHP already have type hints?
14. Doesn’t PHP already have type hints? • Scalar type hints
15. Doesn’t PHP already have type hints? • Scalar type hints • Typed arrays
16. Doesn’t PHP already have type hints? • Scalar type hints • Typed arrays • Nullable types
17. Doesn’t PHP already have type hints? • Scalar type hints • Typed arrays • Nullable types • Function return type hints
18. Doesn’t PHP already have type hints? • Scalar type hints • Typed arrays • Nullable types • Function return type hints • Type checker
19. More useful Hack types
20. Questions?
21. Still not convinced?
 
 DEMO
22. More Cool Features
23. Lambdas
24. Lambdas
25. Collections Why would I need anything besides an array?
26. Collections Anyone know what this is?
27. Collections Hack gives us the right tool for each job
28. Collections Cleaner API
29. Collections Other nice features • Familiar interface
30. Collections Other nice features • Familiar interface • OutOfBoundsException
31. Collections Other nice features • Familiar interface • OutOfBoundsException • Collections are objects (no more passing by ref)
32. Collections Other nice features • Familiar interface • OutOfBoundsException • Collections are objects (no more passing by ref) • Immutable collections too
33. Trailing Commas You know you want them
34. And more . . . • User attributes • Enhancements to traits • Async / await • Constructor promotion • Shapes • Type aliases . . . .
35. Questions?
36. Why should you consider it? Safety Language Features (Developer) Speed
37. Trying out Hack is not scary • Gradual process
38. Trying out Hack is not scary • Gradual process • Full PHP interoperability
39. Trying out Hack is not scary • Gradual process • Full PHP interoperability • Not just for multi-million line codebases
40. Trying out Hack is not scary • Gradual process • Full PHP interoperability • Not just for multi-million line codebases • Awesome tooling
41. How to get started • Install HHVM (packages available)
42. How to get started • Install HHVM (packages available) • Convert existing code with hackificator
43. How to get started • Install HHVM (packages available) • Convert existing code with hackificator • Monitor logs for type errors
44. How to get started • Install HHVM (packages available) • Convert existing code with hackificator • Monitor logs for type errors • Harden your types over time
45. Resources • Conversion guide
 http://docs.hhvm.com/manual/en/install.hack.conversion.php • HHVM blog http://hhvm.com/blog • IRC channel #hhvm • http://hhvm.com/frameworks/ • https://github.com/facebook/hhvm/wiki/Extensions
46. Questions?
47. Feedback please @jclermont https://joind.in/talk/view/12714
48. Thank you! @jclermont
 
 https://joind.in/talk/view/12714