Strands™ Summer 2008 haXe Project Announcement

We are pleased to announce the Strands™ Summer 2008 haXe Project. This project seeks to support open source development of haXe by directly sponsoring students for a summer long project. Here's a brief introduction:


Strands, the sponsoring company, is a developer of social recommendation technologies with an active group of researchers constantly looking for opportunities in web technology, data mining, and rich internet applications. We are very interested in the direction that haXe is headed, and would like to stimulate more active development.


Justin Donaldson is a PhD student at Indiana University, where he studies recommendation systems, novel interfaces, and network theory. He's been working with Strands for the last three years, and has used haXe to a small extent in some of his own work. He's going to be the liason between Strands and the rest of the people involved with this project.


Franco Ponticelli is a name most of you in the haXe community should recognize. He's a co-author of the recently published book on haXe, and has been very active in the development of haXe. He has offered his services as a mentor for this project, and will assist in the guidance and evaluation of the projects.


Franco and Justin have been discussing potential project candidates - in particular projects that represent the biggest opportunities for students, the open source community, as well as Strands.


Here are the projects, and the rationale for their selection:

  1. haxe2php: This module will allow for the creation of php server side scripting modules. HaXe already provides for server side scripting by targeting the Neko VM, but this environment is not very familiar to many people, and is not as tested as php. Developing an alternative server side scripting arrangement will do much to strengthen HaXe's presence in this area.
    1. Students will benefit by gaining knowledge of cross-compilation methods using OCaml, as well as better understanding the 'heart' of haXe.
    2. The open source community will benefit from the additional features of HaXe, and this will likely increase the visibility of HaXe.
  2. haxe2.NET / haxe2mono: This module will allow haXe to target Microsoft's Common Language Infrastructure, either in the commercial version of .NET, or in the open source mono version. This allows haXe to benefit from the powerful tools that Microsoft develops for .NET, as well as allowing for haXe to target the Microsoft CLI environment, which allows it to run on whatever .NET/mono is installed.
    1. Students will benefit from gaining knowledge of the CLI environment, and the various cross-compilation methods that are implemented in OCaml. They will also develop a better knowledge of the internals of haXe.
    2. The open source community will benefit from being able to use more powerful development tools with haXe, as well as being able to use haXe on .NET/mono environments.
  3. Extjs (or similar) rich internet gui framework: This project will involve the development of a cross platform gui framework that can be deployed on the web as DHTML, or on the flash vm, or as a desktop application.
    1. Students will develop their knowledge of the requirements and limitations of the different environments (DHTML, Flash, Desktop/OS environments), and how to implement a uniform set of controls across each platform.
    2. The open source community will benefit from the extra functionality offered by the module, and this module will most likely lead to several open source applications in its own right.
  4. A Student Proposal - This is a proposal that one or more students provide. At the very least, it should include a list of benefits for the student(s) as well as the open source community. Priority will be given to the projects listed above, and projects involving more than one student.

Students should apply directly to Franco Ponticelli by e-mail. We'll need to know the following:


  • Name
  • Citizenship
  • Shipping Address
  • Residence Address
  • School (degree to be completed date + graduation date)
  • The project you are interested in (if it's a new project, please also submit a full description, plus intended benefits for the haXe/opensource community)
  • Resumes, or CV's, or at least some relevant prior experience/projects.


Students will also have to accept our terms of service for the project. Click here to access and accept the terms. Your proposal cannot be considered for funding if you do not accept the terms.


We are hoping to get 2-3 students. The number/type of student we get will affect which project gets selected. It may even be possible to do two projects. Strands will not provide support for more than two projects.

The monetary amount per project is divided up as follows:


$5,000 per participant


  • $4500 given to each student
    • $500 given to each student up front
    • $2000 given to the student after a mid-summer evaluation by Franco
    • $2000 given upon final evaluation by Franco
  • $500 to Franco Ponticelli’s organization

The following deadlines will be in effect:


  • May 8th - Student Application deadline
  • Second week of May: Bringing students up to speed with the project/details.
  • June 1st - Students receive first check (if paperwork is in order)
  • July 31st - Midterm evaluation: checks are sent out if evaluations are in order
  • August 25th - Project completion deadline
  • September 7th - Final mentor evaluations, final checks are sent.

Completed projects will most likely be hosted through lib.haxe.org, and we will come up with an SVN solution for development very soon.


Strands will also set up a small page in their lab section which describes the project, participants, and HaXe, and also provides some links, etc.


Please post questions to the haXe mailing list.


If you want to participate, and are wondering what to do next, please click here to access and accept the terms.