Update :

We (AS3Boyan and Misterpah) are focusing on the Haxe-based Integrated Development Editor (HIDE). More information can be obtained at the update page.  You can view our progress on HIDE here. 

- misterpah (Oct 2 , 2013)

Who I am? / Who are we?

I am active Haxe developer known as AS3Boyan in Haxe community. Almost all my life I developed games and software. I have developed games using Visual Basic 6/ Python(pygame) / AS3 / JavaScript and Haxe.I have worked on mobile games development(using Adobe AIR) as a freelance programmer. But then I realized that, Haxe has all features that I need and much more.

I have worked on few open source projects written in Haxe. I am author of HaxeBuilder, Endurance Logger. I have made Starling Backend for TileLayer. You can get more information about it on my Github page. Also I am author of Haxe 3 Tutorials blog.

Hi there, i am Misterpah. You may know me from the haxe-roundup guy (in previous weeks) with an HaxeFlixel IDE. To simplify, i am a programmer at heart. I've used alot of languages to develop simple things. Among notable languages i've learned are QBasic, RapidEuphoria, C/C++, Python, Javascript, and Haxe of course.

Among the work I've done for Haxe? not much really. I've extend some (read:very small amount) of Waxe functions; a couple of games using HaxeFlixel, and that's it.

Why Cactus IDE?

Haxe lacks really good cross platform IDE, the best thing Haxe developers can get -  is to get FlashDevelop. It's good IDE, but it's Windows only and Haxe language support there is still not as good as Flash.

I want to make fast, lightweight Haxe IDE which combines best features from different IDEs, like FlashDevelop and NetBeans:

• Smart auto completion and code generation(event handlers generation)
  imagine this:
  addEventListener(
                                Event
                                MouseEvent                           
                                etc.
  addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, |
                                                                       generate onEnterFrame handler
• Auto rebuilding on code changes and showing bugs(Inspired by NetBeans)
• New project dialog(Inspired by NetBeans)
• Search/Replace dialogs as toolbars(Inspired by NetBeans)
• Debugging(possibly using hxcpp and swf debugger)
• and of course all basic features that any IDE has(write me, I am open to suggestions)

Show bugs as images at line number(I haven't implemented it yet, so this is a NetBeans screenshot just to show feature)

Will it be open source?

Yes! It will be licensed under MIT terms to give developers as much freedom as possible. RSyntaxTextArea component, which I am using, licensed under terms of modified BSD license.

What do you have now and why I need $1500?

I am not saying give me $100 000 and I will make perfect IDE(with super features), because Haxe community is not big enough and I understand that people really not happy with IDE's on Linux/Mac. So I'm just trying to make  lightweight IDE with smart auto completion, imagine cross platform minimalistic FlashDevelop, that has features, that every Haxe developer needs.

All month, I was working hard on this IDE, I even had no time to play games. But I am a human being, and I can't just work on air. I need $1500 so I can continue spending all my time developing Cactus IDE. Otherwise, I will find some job and start spending less time on IDE. Anyway I think I will try to spend some time working on Cactus IDE.

You can see some screenshots above, those are not sketch images, those are screenshots from real Cactus IDE.

It already has:

• Syntax highlighting
• Auto completion(using Haxe completion server + some custom completion for specific cases)
• Code folding
• Matching brackets
• Project file tree
• New Project dialog
• Resizable file tree and output window(like in FlashDevelop)
  
• Undo/Redo

Where the funds go if this project don’t reach $1500?

I am writing Cactus IDE in Java and I tried many different text components, that has a lot of features, that I need for making this IDE, I made my own auto completion dialog.

Later I discovered great RSyntaxTextArea text component and it seems like this is just what I need! And it's author Robert Futrell, helped me to get additional features to work. This component is very rich on features and very easy to use. And I got it to work with Haxe completion, implemented custom autocompletion mechanism.

Why just not make plugin for some IDE instead of making whole new IDE?

The reason is because I want to have a lightweight IDE and very fast, that does not consume a lot of memory, does not have any limitations and work everywhere and available for free for anyone!

Perks

Of course, I could make some better perks like t shirts, posters with labels like:

"MAKING BEST GAMES IN CACTUS IDE","I HELPED TO FUND CACTUS IDE!!!", "HAXE ROCKS!", "CACTUS IDE BEST HAXE IDE EVER!", "I AM SO UNIQUE BECAUSE I USE CACTUS IDE", "BEST DEVS USE CACTUS IDE" and etc.

So basically there are three perks:

• $10
  I will add your name to contributors list in "Help">"About" screen for showing your support and it will remain there forever.
  
• $100
  I will add your name and link to your website to contributors list in "Help">"About" screen for showing your support and it will remain forever.
  
• $500
  All of above + request 3 features you need. (needs to be discussed)
  

When it will be ready to use?

• Explain why your project is valuable to the contributor and to the world.
• Make it real for people and build trust.

Other Ways You Can Help

If you want help then consider contributing to RSyntaxTextArea(by Robert Futrell), this is the amazing text component I am using.

Any help, like tips on code structure would help me to make it better. Maybe providing graphics for logo and images to show bugs, would be great.

If you can't help to fund this project directly, please spread the word, share link to this page.