Recently a lot of buzz about PrimalScript. A while back, it was about SE|PY, before that, SciteFlash.
Personally, I would love to stay in the IDE full time for editing. Particularly in MX. It always just seemed clunky to put an #include line on a frame and switch back and forth between two programs. Of course, there was Flush to run the movie in Flash, which helped. But having an editor which was “as good as” the Flash IDE editor was not good enough. There had to be at least one killer feature to make it worth it for me to jump out of the IDE. For me, that killer feature was code folding. I fell in love with SciteFlash.
Then, along came MX 2004. In one sense, having classes implemented as external .as files made the idea of using an external editor much more palatable. But two drawbacks: One is that Flush doesn’t seem to like to run 2004. The other is that my favorite editor, SciteFlash does not support AS2. Add to that the project panel in 2004, which allows you to test the main fla while editing an .as file. I made a donation to help push SciteFlash into 2004, and I look forward to the new version. But in the meantime, I had to shelve it.
Then, along came SE|PY. AS2 support and code folding. I figured out how to use a simple JSFL file to make a test movie shortcut. It also has some other cool features that SciteFlash didn’t. It’s still under active development, and is free!
Then, along came PrimalScript 3.1. This has lots of high-end features, but lacks the one killer feature I love SciteFlash and SE|PY for. A lot of people love this editor. I’m not sold yet, but I’m forcing myself to use it for a week or so to see what the excitement is about. But knowing that 3.1 is a public beta, and the “real” version costs something like $179, unless I have an epiphany, I don’t think I’ll be making the switch. Maybe I’m missing something big. I’d love to hear what people consider the killer features of PrimalScript has over something like SE|PY. Or, if there’s another contender in the market, I’d like to hear about it.
Links:
SciteFlash
SE|PY
PrimalScript
Honestly, I can fully understand the IDE ‘homelessness’ that you feel. I have made the switch from editor to editor quite often. Currently I am using Eclipse, mainly because it supports tabbed pages, etc. within OSX. On my PC I was addicted to SciTE. But, honestly… I was never fulfilled. I believe that we as a community need to spec and mock up the KILLER editor and hand it to Macromedia and say… ‘Build this please…”. I honestly believe that they do not understand the needs of the growing Flash development community. This is not neccesarily a intentional thing, but maybe we can help them desisgn something that we can all use.
I think I may post some more regarding this on my site.
– Daniel
As I use PrimalScript a bit more, I can see how the SourceBrowser can fulfill the same needs as code folding – namely, letting you see all your methods/properties without scrolling around endlessly. Also found a few neat shortcuts like right-clicking on a variable and choosing “go to declaration”, “go to last edit”, etc.
I guess Macromedia doesn’t have much to gain by making the ultimate editor. We still have to go to Flash to compile, no matter what editor we use.
IBM is working on an Eclipse Plug-in. I’m not entirely sure if it’s for ActionScript, but I know they’re making one for Flex.
The Eclipse plug-in for Flex will most likely also support AS2, considering that to build anything reasonable with Flex you need to use both AS2 and MXML.
My biggest problem with PrimalScript is that it’s mainly an AS2 editor, and I still do the majority of my work in AS1.
Hey Bit,
Why don’t you just post your needs on to the Sourceforge pages ? The developers will know your work too and they will be fighting to develop the stuff you propose on the board 😉
Just for the sport of it, no bucks involved !