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Flash Pro CS5 - expected function parameters and syntax error highlighting

I'm working with actionscript in Flash Professional CS5, and I find it very slow and difficult because of the following three issues:

  1. No way to know what kind of parameters a function needs. When you hover over a function in Visual Studio for instance, it tells you what parameters it takes and what it returns. Same with variables, shows you the type. This makes things go a lot smoother, especially when you're working with other people's libraries or you're just using a flash function for the first time. Right now, I have to publish and see the error message in order to know what parameter types were expected by that certain function. (am I missing something here?)

  2. No variable/function highlighting. In other environments, when you select a variable, all instances of that variable, including the definition, are highlighted throughout the document (like in notepad++). This is not hugely important, but again, makes life easier.

  3. And finally, live syntax error highlighting. Y U no have that, Flash Pro? There's that blue checkmark button that says "Check Syntax", but it never seems to do anything, even when there clearly are "asdfsdg"s in the document.

Is it possible to actually get any of these features in flash pro or do I just have to suck it up and write things notepad-style? I'm also working with Stage3D and FP11, so I can't debug any more and I have to publish every time, which makes everything even slower.

Thanks for any insight on this.

PS: I know about Ctrl+Space

Solution

  • Use Flash Builder to edit ActionScript.

    Extending Eclipse, it is a superior code editing environment. It will encapsulate similar functionality as you'd find in Visual Studio with ReSharper.

    Flash Builder may be used standalone to compile pure ActionScript projects; or integration with Flash Pro is seamless. You may right-click a symbol with AS linkage in Flash Pro and select "Edit Class" choosing "Flash Builder" as the editor.

    Syntax lighting, intellisense / auto-completion, navigating classes, searching keywords, refactoring, auto code generation, override implement methods, indentation, auto formatting, organizing imports, ASDoc - all features you would expect from an IDE are provided by Flash Builder.

    As well, Flash Builder includes extensive debugging and profiling functionality far beyond Flash Professional.