Getting Started

Getting Started

Kha supports multiple workflows:

• Kode Studio
• Git

Using Kode Studio is the easiest way of getting started with Kha, followed by the haxelib workflow. Using git is more robust and recommended when starting an actual project with Kha.

Kode Studio

Kode Studio is a fork of Visual Studio Code. It is a portable cross-platform IDE optimized for Kha development that comes bundled with a version of Kha and useful extensions. It features debugging support based on VSCode's Chrome debugger, Haxe's JavaScript target, and a modified Kha HTML5 target.

To get started with Kha and Kode Studio, download the build supported by your operating system:

Download Kode Studio

From within Kode Studio, open an empty directory on your file system. Press F1 to open the VSCode command palette, then search for and execute Init Kha Project. A project template should now be set up in your project directory.

To build the project, open up the command palette and execute Compile Kha Project. If everything was set up correctly in the previous steps an empty black window should open up. Congratulations, you have just built your first Kha project! The result should be located in the build directory at the root of your project folder. Note that Kode Studio builds HTML5 projects by default because its debugger is based on the HTML5 Kha target.

The version of Kha used by Kode Studio is located in [Kode Studio]/resources/app/extensions/kha/Kha. However, Kode Studio can be configured to use a different one. This is done by opening up Kode Studio user settings (File > Preferences > User Settings) and setting the kha.khaPath property to the path of your desired Kha library version.

git

To use Kha's git based workflow you need git and node (v8.9+).

To create a new Kha project run node /path/to/Kha/make --init inside of an empty directory. Now you can create some project files using for example node /path/to/Kha/make (which will create a project for the system you're currently running) or node /path/to/Kha/make html5 (html5 projects compile and run very fast). Project files are by default created inside of a build subdirectory.

When using Windows you will eventually have to install Microsoft's dxwebsetup.exe. This is included in Kha's Kore/Tools/krafix subdirectory.

Installing NodeJS

You can get a copy of NodeJS on its site here and install it.

Update NodeJS

If you have NodeJS already installed make sure it's updated! You can do so with the following commands.

sudo npm cache clean -f
node --version
sudo npm install -g n
sudo npm stable
node --version

Starting with Kha

Kha projects are usually handled using git submodules so that every dependency is properly versioned. Even the Haxe compiler itself is just a submodule.

If you want to add Kha as a submodule for your git project just use

git submodule add https://github.com/Kode/Kha
git submodule update --init --recursive

You can also clone the Empty project and start from it - but make sure to update Kha afterwards (see below).

git clone --recursive https://github.com/Kha-Samples/Empty.git

Using Kha from one place

If you want to use only one clone of the Kha repository for all of your projects, you can clone Kha in a place in your system, and use this path when use Kha, like node <kha-path>/make. To get things easier, create a batch file or script with the complete command.
In Windows, this can be a .bat file on the windows folder with this:

@echo off
node <kha-path>\make %*

Or on linux, a shell script:

#!/bin/bash
node /<kha-path>/make $@

Updating Kha

If you want to update the Kha submodules in your repository you can do it with just this command!

git submodule foreach --recursive git pull origin master

If you are using Kha from a separate place, use the above command in your Kha directory, and after this use this command to update Kha itself:

git pull origin master

otherwise only the submodules of Kha would be updated.

Quick Setup

These are steps on using Kha from one directory & then pointing too it within Kode Studio. So we can use the most up to date version of Kha

• Install NodeJS
• Choose location where you want Kha to install. This can be either somewhere public or kept hidden. The hidden location do still need to be writeable
• Point your command line/terminal to your chosen folder
• Input this:

git clone --recursive https://github.com/Kode/Kha.git

• In the command line/terminal, point it to the created Kha folder
• Input this:

git submodule foreach --recursive git pull origin master

• Input this:

git pull origin master

• Within Kode Studio, go to Preferences > Settings
• Type in the path to where Kha has been installed. Example:

"kha.khaPath": "/usr/local/lib/kha"

You can now use the git clone version of Kha. If you need to update & always stay on top with Kha releases, check the Updating Kha section above