Are there any open source (read free) alternatives to Flex Builder? I do not qualify for their student waiver (sad)
+4
A:
There are some good options here.
http://www.riaspace.net/2009/01/flex-developer-tools-ides/
FlashDevelop seems to be the most popular.
Jason W
2010-03-15 19:10:32
+1 for FlashDevelop, assuming you're on a PC. If you're on a Mac there aren't really any *great* alternatives. I run FlashDevelop thru VMWare Fusion and a system builders version of XP which ran me approximately $80 (Fusion) and $90 (XP)...
heavilyinvolved
2010-03-15 20:10:57
I use Flash Develop for my old AS2 stuff (yeah, we still have a couple of old apps we maintain) and it's pretty good. Not as good as Flex Builder or Visual Studio, but decent.
Sam
2010-03-16 02:59:13
@Sam: "Not as good as Flex Builder or Visual Studio" - 1. that totally depends on what you're doing 2. it's really subjective. Personally, I **really** dislike both Eclipse and Visual Studio for a number of reasons. Also, in my eyes FlashDevelop is much better for pure AS3 than Flex Builder is (as is FDT). Flex Builder is better for MXML and a number of other things. But I'd never dare to say it is better or worse than FD.
back2dos
2010-03-16 15:08:03
Open-source and free alternatives are surely usable, but quite frankly, none of them is actually up to scratch if we come to professional Flash dev. My choice is FDT 4. Its Release Candidate came out just yesterday and those of you who are not convinced can get a free 1-month trial for it (good till Oct 17th): http://tekkie.flashbit.net/flash/get-a-taste-of-professional-flash-development-with-fdt-4-trial
Ain
2010-09-11 06:40:22
+3
A:
The answers to these questions should help you:
Flex development on Linux, what’s a good free environment?
What is the best (most productive) FLEX IDE?
Since the flex SDK is free and open source you can really used any IDE you already use, only do command line compile.
If your on linux the flex builder plugin is still free, and from the looks of things it will stay free for a while as I don't see them putting more work into it anytime soon. I personally think its perfect as I don't use design view ever anyway and that is most of what is missing you still get great code hinting and so forth.
ethyreal
2010-03-15 19:30:18
A:
Whilst FlashDevelop is windows-only, there's also AXDT: open-source cross-platform alternative for Flash development.
It's not a competitor to Flash Builder or FDT that are way more comprehensive, but it makes a good setup for small things or for those just starting to develop for Flash Platform.
Ain
2010-06-25 09:10:17
+1
A:
They also have an unemployed waiver now too:
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/free/index.html
Overall it seems like they're saying "try me out, if you like me, upgrade me to premium" especially since the premium version offers a boatload of new tools.
Organiccat
2010-08-20 13:38:26