Hello, How would you go on implementing incremental compilation workflow on Flash 8/AS2?
I mean, compiling only the modified classes into their correspondent swfs. Let's say you've got a really big project and that you are constantly messing with code and recompiling it. ANT build files are great, but surely it's not clever to rebuild the whole application when you have modified only one class for example. Take the following application structure (it's not that big application I said earlier of course bit I think it still helps to depict the main issue): - Application.as gets compiled to Site.swf - MenuBar.as gets compiled to Site.swf - IndexForm.as gets compiled to IndexForm.swf - ContactForm.as gets compiled to ContactForm.swf As you can see, I have a Site.swf which is the entry-point of the application. IndexForm.swf and ContactForm.swf are both loaded by Application.as. The MenuBar is a class that implements the menu bar for the site navigation. The menu bar is part of the main application UI and gets compiled into Site.swf. If I update or fix something on the MenuBar.as, for example, I don't want to recompile Application.as into Site.swf, nor compile the other classses to the other swfs. What I want is only inject the new MenuBar.as bytecode into Site.swf (the modified class!). Simple, fast, effective. On FlashDevelop, I used to do this by using the "Quick MTASC build" feature. I would just write the @mtasc statement in the class' header, inside a javadoc comment, telling where to compile this class. So, if I had to do a quick fix or something, I would just hit CTRL+F8, and the new bytecode for MenuBar.as would get injected into Site.swf. I don't know if there are better (more automatized ways) to do this, and if you know, please share, this is the purpose of this post! Recently I've started using FDT 1.5 on Eclipse 3.2, and while it is a killer piece of software, I miss some of FlashDevelop features, mainly the simple and effective ones such as the "Quick MTASC build". Currently, I'm using an ANT build file (the "FDT MTASC launcher" isn't really of any use in my opinnion) with an ANT target to compile each of the swfs the application is made of. When I'm working on a particular SWF, I set up the ANT "external tools" configuration to launch only this target. It's not the same as injecting only the modified classes (other non-touched classes get compiled also) but it was the best I could do atm. This message isn't really about implementing this with FDT, though I would love to hear from FDT users how they would do this. What I would like to know (and discuss) are the following points: * Do you feel the need to have this workflow implemented? * Do you already have this workflow implemted somehow? * If so, what tools/techniques do you use (would use) to implement it? Thanks in advance! Marcelo. _______________________________________________ [email protected] To change your subscription options or search the archive: http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders Brought to you by Fig Leaf Software Premier Authorized Adobe Consulting and Training http://www.figleaf.com http://training.figleaf.com
