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Hack Lang VS D (Programming Language)

Compare Hack Lang VS D (Programming Language) and see what are their differences

Hack Lang logo Hack Lang

A programming language for HHVM that interoperates seamlessly with PHP

D (Programming Language) logo D (Programming Language)

D is a language with C-like syntax and static typing.
  • Hack Lang Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-04-18
  • D (Programming Language) Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-09

Hack Lang features and specs

  • Static Typing
    Hack adds static typing to PHP, which helps catch type-related errors early and improves code quality and maintainability.
  • Async Programming Support
    Hack has built-in support for asynchronous programming, making it easier to write non-blocking, high-performance applications.
  • Compatibility with PHP
    Hack is designed to be compatible with existing PHP code, making it easier for developers to transition from PHP to Hack without completely rewriting their codebase.
  • Type Annotations
    With type annotations, developers can specify the types of variables, return types of functions, and parameter types, which leads to more readable and self-documenting code.
  • Collections API
    Hack provides a rich collections API, which includes various data structures like Vector, Map, and Set, making it easier to work with data in a type-safe way.
  • Integrated Development Environment (IDE) Support
    IDE tools like HHVM and Hack development environments provide robust support for Hack, offering features such as autocompletion, real-time type checking, and error detection.

Possible disadvantages of Hack Lang

  • Limited Ecosystem
    Hack does not have as large an ecosystem of libraries and frameworks as PHP, which might limit third-party integrations and available resources.
  • Learning Curve
    For developers coming from PHP or other dynamically-typed languages, there is a learning curve associated with the static typing and other advanced features of Hack.
  • Facebook Dependency
    Hack was developed by Facebook and is heavily associated with their infrastructure. This can lead to concerns about its future direction being tightly controlled by a single company.
  • Deployment Complexity
    Deploying Hack applications often requires the HipHop Virtual Machine (HHVM), which can add complexity to the deployment process compared to traditional LAMP stack setups.
  • Community Support
    Compared to more established languages like PHP, Hack has a smaller community, which may result in fewer tutorials, forums, and community-driven support options.
  • Performance Overheads
    While HHVM improves performance for PHP and Hack code, there can still be situations where performance tuning and optimization are necessary to achieve the desired performance.

D (Programming Language) features and specs

  • Performance
    D is designed to be a high-performance systems programming language, offering performance comparable to C and C++ through native machine code compilation.
  • Expressiveness
    D features a rich standard library and modern language constructs, such as garbage collection, first-class arrays, and advanced templating, making it easier to write expressive and maintainable code.
  • Memory Safety
    D offers optional garbage collection along with manual memory management. This hybrid approach can help in developing safer applications by reducing memory-related errors.
  • Interoperability
    D can easily interoperate with C API, enabling seamless integration with existing C libraries and systems. It also supports better C++ interoperability compared to other languages.
  • Built-in Unit Testing
    D has built-in support for unit tests, allowing developers to write and run tests as part of the language itself, facilitating test-driven development.
  • Concurrency
    D offers built-in concurrency support with message passing, similar to the actor model found in languages like Erlang, making it easier to write concurrent and parallel programs.

Possible disadvantages of D (Programming Language)

  • Adoption
    D is not as widely adopted as other languages like C, C++, or Java. This limited adoption means fewer libraries, frameworks, and community support.
  • Toolchain Maturity
    While D's compilers and tools have improved over the years, they may still lack the maturity and feature set of more established languages, which can affect developer productivity.
  • Learning Curve
    D's richness and combination of paradigms (such as imperative, object-oriented, and functional programming) can present a steep learning curve for new developers.
  • Garbage Collection
    Although D offers optional garbage collection, its reliance on it for memory safety might be seen as a drawback for real-time system development where deterministic memory management is crucial.
  • Ecosystem
    The ecosystem for D is less vibrant compared to more popular languages, leading to potentially fewer third-party libraries, tools, and resources.
  • Standard Library Documentation
    The standard library documentation can be inconsistent or less comprehensive compared to other languages, making it difficult for developers to fully utilize all features of the language.

Analysis of Hack Lang

Overall verdict

  • Hack Lang is considered good for projects that require the balance of PHPโ€™s dynamic nature with the advantages of static typing. It provides a strong type system and useful modern features, making it a robust choice for developers familiar with PHP looking to optimize performance and code reliability.

Why this product is good

  • Hack Lang is an extension of PHP that was developed by Facebook to improve the efficiency, safety, and speed of their large codebase. It introduces static typing while still supporting PHP interop, which helps catch errors earlier in the development process. Hack Lang also includes features like collections, lambda expressions, and async programming, all of which are designed to modernize and enhance PHP development.

Recommended for

    Hack Lang is recommended for developers and large-scale organizations already using PHP who want to transition to a more modern and type-safe environment. It is particularly suitable for projects that require high performance and code maintainability, such as large web applications with complex business logic.

Analysis of D (Programming Language)

Overall verdict

  • Overall, D is a solid programming language choice that balances performance with productivity. It may not be as widely adopted as some other languages, but it has a dedicated community and continues to evolve, making it a viable option for various programming tasks.

Why this product is good

  • The D programming language is considered good by many developers for various reasons. It combines the performance and low-level control of C/C++ with the expressive power and ease of use found in modern languages. D offers features like garbage collection, first-class functions, and compile-time function execution, providing both speed and flexibility. Its interoperability with C, the convenience of a powerful standard library (Phobos), and the availability of packages via the DUB package manager make it a practical choice for systems programming, application development, and rapid prototyping.

Recommended for

  • System programming enthusiasts looking for an alternative to C/C++
  • Developers interested in writing high-performance applications
  • Programmers who appreciate modern language features and strong community support
  • Projects requiring seamless C integration
  • Individuals looking for a language that supports easy code maintenance and scalability

Hack Lang videos

Project .hack Series Review! - The Game Collection

More videos:

  • Review - Hacked Movie REVIEW | Deeksha Sharma
  • Review - Review: .hack//G.U. Last Recode (PS4, also on PC)

D (Programming Language) videos

D Language Tutorial

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Hack Lang and D (Programming Language))
Typography
100 100%
0% 0
Programming Language
27 27%
73% 73
OOP
0 0%
100% 100
Design
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, D (Programming Language) should be more popular than Hack Lang. It has been mentiond 60 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Hack Lang mentions (21)

  • PHP Almost Generics: Guided Journey Through the Official Compile-Time Proposal
    I'm glad that PHP has adopted more and more from Hack, Facebook's once fork and now completely separate language - https://hacklang.org/. It was never going to replace it (Go's success separate from Google has astounded me to be honest) but it heavily influencing PHP's direction feels like the best of both worlds. - Source: Hacker News / 10 months ago
  • Upcoming Hardening in PHP
    Doesnโ€™t Facebook still run most of their backend on Hack[0] (compiled PHP subset)? [0] https://hacklang.org/. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • PHP is the new JavaScript?
    What ever happened to Hack (https://hacklang.org) the language Meta built as a superset of PHP? Why not take an approach more similar to TypeScript? I sometimes do wonder if many of the server side rendering approaches (or alternative Node runtimes) would be better off trying to emulate some aspects of PHP. - Source: Hacker News / almost 2 years ago
  • Javascript Ecosystem, How Trash It Actually Is?
    On top of all that, now we want to make JavaScript type-safe. So let's add 10 more configuration files, add a compiler, and now we have bullcrap^2. Just like Facebook invented HackLang, Microsoft invented TypeScript, but only companies of this magnitude need such features. The average Joe from Delaware does not need all that. - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago
  • Benchmarking 20 programming languages on N-queens and matrix multiplication
    PHP results: Is Hack still popular with PHP people? I was stupid enough to write some scientific code in PHP once so know how slow it can be. But if your going to do try write performant code in PHP use the HHVM interpreter. It's much faster. Hack (https://hacklang.org/) uses that under the hood by default. - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
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D (Programming Language) mentions (60)

  • Ask HN: What is your (AI) dev tech stack / workflow? (June 2026)
    I've spent 2 weeks (2-4h per day) to make D language[1] version of Sciter SDK [2] Choice of AI "tooling" was by accident - typed something like "how to define copy constructor in D for custom structure" in Microsoft's Copilot in Edge browser that gives context for AI. The answer was good enough for me and so I went with it further. [1] D language HQ : https://dlang.org/. - Source: Hacker News / about 2 months ago
  • Rue: Higher level than Rust, lower level than Go
    > Mostly, I am not really trying to compete with C/C++/Rust on speed, but I'm not going to add a GC either. So I'm somewhere in there. Out of curiosity, how would you compare the goals of Rue with something like D[0] or one of the ML-based languages such as OCaml[1]? 0 - https://dlang.org/ 1 - https://ocaml.org/. - Source: Hacker News / 7 months ago
  • Pony: An actor-model, capabilities-secure, high-performance programming language
    The D language home page has something similar with a drop down with code examples https://dlang.org/. - Source: Hacker News / 12 months ago
  • Show HN: D++lang โ€“ A new systems programming language with Python-like syntax
    What is this? There's a lot of red flags here. * The name "D" for a programming language was taken in 1999: https://dlang.org/. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Koto Programming Language
    >For me the biggest gap in programming languages is a rust like language with a garbage collector, instead of a borrow checker. I cannot agree more that's the much needed sweet spot/Goldilock/etc. Personally I have been advocating this approach for some times. Apparently the language is already widely available and currently has stable and wide compiler support including the venerable GNU compiler suite (GDC). It... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
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