hlc-compiler-sample

A small example of HashLink/C native compilation using hlc-compiler.

The example project to be compiled uses Heaps.io.

Prerequisites

Important ones

• Haxe 4.2.3 or compatible
  • Avoid using 4.2.4 or 4.2.5 since there is a regression bug.
• HashLink 1.11.0 or compatible
• C compiler
  • Windows: GCC 11.2.0 or compatible
  • Mac: Clang 13.1.6 or compaptible

lix (optional; not required)

lix is an alternative package manager for Haxe projects.

If you aren't using lix, you can ignore the following files in this repository:

• .haxerc
• haxe_libraries/

Haxe library dependencies

• For targeting HashLink:
  • hashlink 0.1.0 or compatible
• For use in the example project:
  • heaps 1.9.1 or compatible
  • hlsdl / hldx 1.10.0 or compatible
• For compiling HL/C into executable:
  • hlc-compiler 0.3.0 or compatible

To install:

haxelib newrepo
haxelib install hashlink
haxelib install heaps
haxelib install hlsdl
haxelib install hldx
haxelib install hlc-compiler

Or, if using lix, just:

lix download

Usage

Compile Haxe -> HL/C

Run Haxe with:

haxe hxml/build-hl-c.hxml

This will:

1. compile the example source code in src/, and
2. generate HL/C code in the out/c/ directory.

Compile HL/C -> executable

Run the file below, which defines a single commandline for invoking haxelib run hlc-compiler with some options.

• On Windows: run-hlc-compiler.bat
• On Mac: run-hlc-compiler.command

This will generate:

• Executable file (with other runtime files) in the bin/ directory
• Command file for re-compiling in the out/ directory

One-stop compiling & testing

To run the build processes above at once:

haxe -cp scripts --run Compile

Or, if using lix, just:

lix Compile

See scripts/Compile.hx for what it does.

You may also add optional arguments as below (simply add them to the commandline above):

• --clean or -c : Cleanup the output directories (out/ and bin/) before the compilation.
• --test or -t : Runs the generated executable once the compilation completes.

Select libraries to be included

Edit hxml/libraries.hxml to switch/exclude some libraries.

The USE_??? defines have actually no effect in this sample project (see src/Main.hx), but you can see how they affect the compilation result (i.e. what kind of files will be output into bin/) by enabling/disabling them.

Compile a minimum CLI application

To test compiling a minimum CLI app:

• Replace the entire content of src/Main.hx with a minimized main() function.
  • Such as: function main() Sys.println("Hello world!");
• Comment out all the lines in hxml/libraries.hxml.
• Remove unnecessary options for hlc-compiler in the run-hlc-compiler.bat/command file.
  • Such as --runtime and -mwindows

Misc

Errors?

If something goes wrong:

• Try haxe hxml/test-hl-jit.hxml to test on the HL/JIT target. If it reproduces, perhaps it's not a HL/C issue.
• Check your Haxe version. Playing sound will not work well with Haxe 4.2.4 or 4.2.5.
• See also: https://github.com/fal-works/hlc-compiler/wiki

About the sample resource

• The sample sound (res/sound.wav) is from: https://freesound.org/people/mikepro/sounds/438921/ ( CC0 License )
• The sample image (res/image.png) is an original one and it's also CC0 License.