An innovative programming language called Hack, which retains characteristics of PHP while also introducing new features, revealed by Facebook.
According to a PC World article, which cites Brian O’ Sullivan, a network technician, PHP developers will not have trouble understanding Hack, as they share many common features.
As with TypeScript, this language is suitable for use by large software development teams, as well as by individual users who want better performance on their websites and overall improvement of their code quality.
Hack requires HHVM (Hip Hop Virtual Machine) to «run». HHVM is a «virtual machine» that compiles PHP to byte code, so it can «run» faster.
As mentioned in a Wired article, Brian O’ Salivan, Julien Verlaquet, Alok Mengkhratzani and others have developed this language over the past few years, which «allows developers to build complex websites and other software at high speeds, while also ensuring that their code is organized precisely, and relatively free of errors – a combination that few modern languages can achieve».
Hack is behind almost the entire Facebook site, which serves about 1.2 billion people worldwide.
Verlaquet and Mengkhratzani announced yesterday the «opening» of an open version of Hack to the public.
When Mark Zuckerberg started working at Facebook in 2003, he used PHP, which was one of the most popular languages at the time. Over the next decade, its use continued, however as the number of users grew, the language began to show its limitations. As mentioned in a Wired article, Hack could very well be considered a new version of PHP.
Source: naftemporiki.gr
