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
   

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2. What to expect
   • No insider secrets
   

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3. What to expect
   • No insider secrets
   • High-level tour of Hack’s unique features
   

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4. What to expect
   • No insider secrets
   • High-level tour of Hack’s unique features
   • Make the case why you should try it out
   

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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
   

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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
   

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7. Quick Tour of Hack
   

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8. Type Annotations
   

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9. Type Annotations

   Where do we need them?
   

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10. Type Annotations

    What do we get out of it?
    • Easier for developers to understand intent
    

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11. Type Annotations

    What do we get out of it?
    • Easier for developers to understand intent
    • Correctness of our type system
    

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12. Type Annotations

    What do we get out of it?
    • Easier for developers to understand intent
    • Correctness of our type system
    • Easier to refactor
    

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13. Doesn’t PHP already
    have type hints?
    

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14. Doesn’t PHP already
    have type hints?
    • Scalar type hints
    

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15. Doesn’t PHP already
    have type hints?
    • Scalar type hints
    • Typed arrays
    

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16. Doesn’t PHP already
    have type hints?
    • Scalar type hints
    • Typed arrays
    • Nullable types
    

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17. Doesn’t PHP already
    have type hints?
    • Scalar type hints
    • Typed arrays
    • Nullable types
    • Function return type hints
    

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18. Doesn’t PHP already
    have type hints?
    • Scalar type hints
    • Typed arrays
    • Nullable types
    • Function return type hints
    • Type checker
    

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19. More useful Hack types
    

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20. Questions?
    

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21. Still not convinced?

    

    DEMO
    

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22. More Cool Features
    

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23. Lambdas
    

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24. Lambdas
    

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25. Collections
    Why would I need anything besides an array?
    

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26. Collections
    Anyone know what this is?
    

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27. Collections
    Hack gives us the right tool for each job
    

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28. Collections
    Cleaner API
    

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29. Collections
    Other nice features
    • Familiar interface
    

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30. Collections
    Other nice features
    • Familiar interface
    • OutOfBoundsException
    

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31. Collections
    Other nice features
    • Familiar interface
    • OutOfBoundsException
    • Collections are objects (no more passing by ref)
    

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32. Collections
    Other nice features
    • Familiar interface
    • OutOfBoundsException
    • Collections are objects (no more passing by ref)
    • Immutable collections too
    

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33. Trailing Commas
    You know you want them
    

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34. And more . . .
    • User attributes
    • Enhancements to traits
    • Async / await
    • Constructor promotion
    • Shapes
    • Type aliases . . . .
    

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35. Questions?
    

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36. Why should you consider it?
    Safety
    Language Features
    (Developer) Speed
    

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37. Trying out Hack is not scary
    • Gradual process
    

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38. Trying out Hack is not scary
    • Gradual process
    • Full PHP interoperability
    

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39. Trying out Hack is not scary
    • Gradual process
    • Full PHP interoperability
    • Not just for multi-million line codebases
    

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40. Trying out Hack is not scary
    • Gradual process
    • Full PHP interoperability
    • Not just for multi-million line codebases
    • Awesome tooling
    

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41. How to get started
    • Install HHVM (packages available)
    

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42. How to get started
    • Install HHVM (packages available)
    • Convert existing code with hackificator
    

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43. How to get started
    • Install HHVM (packages available)
    • Convert existing code with hackificator
    • Monitor logs for type errors
    

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44. How to get started
    • Install HHVM (packages available)
    • Convert existing code with hackificator
    • Monitor logs for type errors
    • Harden your types over time
    

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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
    

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46. Questions?
    

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47. Feedback please
    @jclermont
    https://joind.in/talk/view/12714
    

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48. Thank you!
    @jclermont

    

    https://joind.in/talk/view/12714
    

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