MiniBuilder screenshots on Ubuntu Linux
Introduction
Flash MiniBuilder is a lightweight IDE created for developing programs written in ActionScript 3.
Flash MiniBuilder is itself written in ActionScript
Two of the main raison d'etre of MiniBuilder are
- provide a completely free and cross platform alternative for developing ActionScript projects.
- provide an editor with a small footprint that would eventually run on smaller computers like netbooks or even pocket-size devices.
Extending, changing (and even integrating MiniBuilder with other software) is easy: MiniBuilder is itself written in your favourite language, AS3!
MiniBuilder will become a strong IDE, both online and desktop, and will promote using ActionScript in unexpected places like on server-side, native desktop applications, embedded devices, etc. Also, other ActionScript projects can use the code completion engine in their own solutions.
This and other of it's unique features and concepts will make it the IDE of choice for lots AS3 developers.
MiniBuilder will benefit from Adobe AIR's ability to launch applications from the browser. Code samples, online tutorials, code libraries will be able to provide a direct launch link for their projects: "launch this project in MiniBuilder" (This feature will be available in the first beta version.)
Because ActionScript virtual machine is now an open source project, we expect lots of solutions to adopt it for embedding. From the start, MiniBuilder targets several implementations of Tamarin AVM:
- Flash Player
- Adobe AIR
- Tamarin AVM shell
- Mod ActionScript (experimental web server module running ActionScript)
MiniBuilder will be available in 2 versions:
- Desktop MiniBuilder
- Web MiniBuilder
History
Current version, AIR based, is not the first, a proof-of-concept was available from july 2009 as a small online tool able to edit and compile a one-file flash project. Compilation was done in a Java Applet running directly in the browser (no server software was necessary). The code assist engine is completely done in AS3.
Current Version and Roadmap
Currently, Desktop MiniBuilder is at version 1.0-alpha2.
Some of the important missing features that will be present in the first beta version are:
- cache typeinfo data for fast startup
- option for remote project hosting and remote compilation service (will enable you to run it on lightweight devices without the need of java)
- complete modularization, make it ready to be extended with editors for different languages and visual editors.
Web MiniBuilder will be available at the beginning of 2010. Plans for it are:
- server-side compilation (incremental)
- server-side type-info cache.
Future plans for both Web and Desktop versions are
- goto definition, find references
- asdoc integration (display help from sources)
- SVN integration
- Visual GUI editor (for different component frameworks)
- Vector graphic editor
- Web Services integration
Help Contents
- AboutMiniBuilder
- Features
- Installation
- Project Types
- DebuggerConsole
