Set up eclipse to compile MXML / AS3 (quasi Flex Builder for OS X)
The release of Apollo has renewed my interest in Flex, I was on the Flex Builder Beta for OS X but don’t do enough Flex work (yet) to shell out for Builder so… I Googled around for the best open source solution.
It was my lucky day as Todd Sharp updated Darron Schall’s 2005 post about setting up eclipse just yesterday. That solved code coloring/hinting, I then found this tutorial by Wim Vanhenden for compiling on OS X. Done and done.
Don’t know if it’s my imagination but the Flex SDK seems to compile much more quickly than a couple of months ago. The only downside to this solution is that it doesn’t use my beloved Textmate, there is a bundle for Flex but it doesn’t seem to have been updated in a while.
* UPDATE *
Actually just did a search and found some ‘Textmate Flex Tips‘ that extends the Flex bundle.
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Did you come up with anything for AS3 support in Eclipse?
Comment by todd sharp — April 2, 2007 @ 11:14 am
Todd: I actually gave in and bought Flex Builder a couple of days ago, they got me!
I started on my ‘FlexMate’ but I realized that it was going an afternoon (or more) to configure TextMate with all the features I wanted. Sending $499 to Adobe was more economical than the blood sweat and tears it would take to match all the Flex Builder features (including adding ActionScript 3.0 support for either Eclipse or TextMate).
I did find this post on compiling Flex with the Flex Compiler Shell http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=1793 it’s for Vim but I was able to modify it for TextMate don’t know if it’s helpful for Eclipse.
For those interested the steps were
1. download fcshtools and put the files in your flex sdk bin
2. in all fcshtools files change ‘FCSH_VIM_ROOT’ to ‘/PathToMy/flex_sdk_2/bin/fcsh’
3. create a TextMate command (a shell command) to start the server: ‘/PathToMy/flex_sdk_2/bin/fcshserv.sh’
4. create a TextMate command that compiles a MXML file: ‘/PathToMy/flex_sdk_2/bin/fcshcmp.sh $TM_FILEPATH’
FSCH is super fast, faster than incremental builds and from what I’ve experienced faster than Flex Builder.
Comment by KreeK — April 2, 2007 @ 2:58 pm
I’ve got a pretty workable solution compiling directly from Eclipse with ANT and I’m working on a Flex/ColdFusion solution to compiling from within an actual Flex application. I’m tempted to get Flex Builder but I’m mainly just ‘playing’ at this point so it’s not really worth the investment yet.
Comment by todd sharp — April 2, 2007 @ 6:07 pm
I too am thinking about taking the plunge and picking up a copy of Flex Builder. I just really love TextMate and can’t imagine myself being productive in an eclipse environment. Do you find yourself dying to be back in TextMate when you’re using Flex Builder?
Comment by Meekish — April 18, 2007 @ 10:59 am
Meekish: Yeah once you get used to TextMate using Eclipse is pretty frustrating. I use Flex Builder for MXML files but still use TextMate for ActionScript. I don’t like having ActionScript mixed in with my MXML anyways so I just flip back and forth (and still spend most of my time in TextMate). There are some good tutorials out there on using ‘Code Behind’ with MXML which helps to seperate things.
Flex Builder’s debugger is really good and one thing it has over TextMate is if you import a class all it’s methods and variables are available as code hints. Builder also helps a lot when first getting used to laying things out. The catch is the more you use Builder the less you need it.
I plan on using Apollo so it’s integration with Flex Builder is another plus. The absolute worst thing about Eclipse for me is the code coloring, I like coding on a dark background and it’s virtually impossible to change it to a TextMate theme like Twilight.
Comment by KreeK — April 18, 2007 @ 11:41 am