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+++ title = "Haxe, heaps, and VSCode (small rant)" publishDate = 2022-10-10T00:00:00+02:00 lastmod = 2024-11-18T18:26:05+01:00 tags = ["proprietary", "vscode", "vendorlock"] categories = ["software", "tech"] draft = false meta = true type = "list" [menu] [menu.posts] weight = 3005 identifier = "haxe-heaps-and-vscode-small-rant" +++
Yesterday me and a friend have been trying to set me up with a development environment to start working on a small game.
He's already made all the big choices, and so the plan was for me to set up with Haxe, Heaps, and the HashLink VM with the IDE VSCode.
We got everything running, except for the debugger link. We spent - no joke - over two hours until we found an explanation for the issue.
There is an extension that is deliberately hidden from the FOSS version of Code. I was unable to install and use it until I switched over to the binary release of Code that Microsoft provides.
I can see no reason why that would be the case. Haxe is Open Source, GPLv2 and MIT licensed. Heaps and Hashlink are licensed under the MIT license.
What possible reason could there be to gatekeep access to the main supported IDE solution behind proprietary software with built-in telemetry and very restrictive access to the way it works?
I can't think of one. I feel like the Haxe Foundation should give a clearer explanation for setting the environment up.
Eventually I managed to get a tracker-free VS Code installed, by using VSCodium, which is a fully FOSS distribution of VSCode. I also used a patch from the AUR to enable the marketplace and actually make things work.
Rant over.