Flash IDE?

ID:181698
 
Nov 14 2009, 4:34 am
Anyone know of any good FREE Flash IDE's? I need one to start working in flash, but Adobe is $800!
Nov 14 2009, 7:55 am
You could try FlashDevelop. I think it's purely a source code editor, though.
Nov 14 2009, 7:56 am
In response to Nickr5
Yea I'm already using that, it needs an IDE =(
Nov 14 2009, 8:14 am
Here's a poll regarding IDE's people use to program in Flash.
Nov 14 2009, 8:16 am
In response to Jeff8500
In that poll I see Flash Develop, yet when using it, it clearly asks me to select the IDE to use, and doesn't let me use Flash Develop.
Nov 14 2009, 8:30 am
In response to Rushnut
That's odd, are you sure it doesn't come with an IDE?

Either way, just remember that your IDE doesn't have to be complex or anything. You can always use notepad, though there is probably an eclipse-based Flash IDE.
Nov 14 2009, 8:33 am
In response to Jeff8500
Fairly sure, either way I'm in the process of downloading code drive IDE. Hope it works =)
Nov 21 2009, 2:04 pm
I doubt there's anything out there that compares with Adobe's IDE's, unfortunately. To make it worse, both Flash CS3 and Flash CS4 IDE's have fairly poor designs and tasks you'd think would be easy, end up having a steep learning curve. I think it's because the GUI is targeted at animators more than it is for programmers.

Flex Builder 3, on the other hand, has one of the best interfaces I've ever seen and is a delight to use. Flex is for complex RIA's, though, so it is not ideal for animators and is limited while you can essentially make anything in Flash CS4. Flex has some killer tutorials as well.

If you can deal with having a non-professional/non-extended version, you can get a copy of Flash CS4 or Flex Builder for around $200, which isn't too bad if you earn more than minimum wage, but if you don't, that's simply too much.

There are plenty of open-sourced compilers out there, but most of them are targeted at technical users and require other software to use properly, like Ant.