Online Actionscript IDE
I often muse that one of the primary reasons I can't break the MS Windows habit is that Adobe doesn't treat Linux as a first class target platform. I've blogged about this before, but it is still annoying.
And Mac isn't an option for several reasons:
- Mac often seems pretentious and preachy ... like a Prius. Too much smug in this world already.
- Paying excessive fees for hardware just because of a depiction of somewhat used fruit seems silly
- I prefer Archos (way to go French engineers! Though stop nickel-and-diming us over codecs and such.) and going Mac would probably be a gateway to iPods
- Ditto with respect to Android. Come on Verizon Wireless, do it already.
I was verifying that Flex Builder on Linux is dead - it is ... damn. Anyway, I happened to notice an interesting project linked in one of the comments.
Flash MiniBuilder is an online ActionScript 3.0 (AS3) IDE created in Flash. Most cool is that it supports code completion and is actually quite responsive. The front end is pure Actionscript and the compiler is a Java applet. It looks like it is generally well received by those that give it a whirl (though not without issues) and is an actively developed project.
Not exactly a replacement for Flash Builder yet, or FlashDevelop, but it is worth watching as it is more responsive that one might originally suspect for a swf+java based IDE.
Stuff missing: introspection, debugger, profiler, project support, ...
Of course, it lacks design view, network monitor and profiler features that the latest Flash Builder has, but for coding it works very well, and it does have FlexUnit integration as well.
I have agree with you. Adobe treats Linux like a step-child and does not provide any love for their IDEs. I started using Ubuntu a little bit last year, but have noticed that Adobe's nice shiny IDEs do not work on Linux. You just confirmed that Flex Builder is not happening on Linux and The CFBuilder Beta 2 only works on Windows and Macs. At least for CF there is CFEclipse, but did not know where to turn in terms of Flex/Flash development. I'll give the IDE you mentioned a look, but do you know if it supports/uses MXML?
@James: My understanding is that there is no MXML support presently, but that it is on the list of things to (there "What's next:" section when you follow the link.
It's a bit of a stretch to compare it to Flex (Flash) Builder, but yes, it's under current development. Main target is to make it as fast and lightweight as possible. I am currently working on the next version - AIR based.
Highlights of AIR MiniBuilder:
- project management (partly compatible with Flash Builder projects)
- parsing swc (and swf also) for code completion
- use Flex SDK compiler
After that, I hope I'll have time to do a complete online ActionScript IDE with server-side compilation. This will enable people to program in AS3 on a netbook or even on a pocket-size device.