Question

What coding tools do you use for improving effectivness of programming in FLEX?

1. I found Tr.ace() AS3 Debugging Utility which help me a lot with working in a team of programmers?

2. frameworks like RobotLegs and others.

3. Signals.

What are the others?

Chris

Answer 1

I guess it depends how you define tools. These are some things used by me, or others I’ve spoken to:

1. ServiceCapture: This is a great program to see the packets being sent to and from the browser / Flash Player and a remote server. Charles is another common tool for this purpose; and Flash Builder now has a network monitor built in to perform the same task. ServiceCapture will also show the trace statements that your app puts out.
2. Step Through Debugger: The Step Through Debugger is a fantastic tool for stepping through code to figure out what happens. It’s built nicely into Flash Builder; but there is a command line tool too. I assume that other Flex IDEs support this functionality.
3. Flash Builder: You can write code in a text editor and compile it via command line tools; but an IDE helps tremendously. Flash Buyilder is Adobe’s IDE; and the one I use primarily, but others exist such as IntelliJ or FDT.
4. ANT: ANT is build tool that allows you to do a bunch of tasks automatically; such as compiling and automatically uploading to a server. Maven and CruiseControl are two alternate options I’ve heard about. I think both are much more advanced than ANT.
5. Subversion: Subversion is a version control system that allows you to track changes with your code. It is strongly recommended for any project; but has extra special benefits when it comes to projects with multiple people working on them. Other options are Git, and CVS.