flash tekkie

If you’ve installed ImageMagick from MacPorts, e.g. for a 32-bit Mac for which there are no prebuilt binaries, you could have seen ImageMagick not working with PHP exec() on localhost even though it works from  the command line. Read the rest of this entry »

Powerflasher has just announced FDT 4 Open Beta programme according to which all are eligible for a fully-flavoured FDT 4 until October 17th 2010. It’s a 1-month trial software that you can try out before FDT 4 gets out of the RC status and hits the streets.

Get your free licence code from www.fdt.powerflasher.com/getlicense.
Read the rest of this entry »

Even though the point of code obfuscation will always remain arguable, it may sometimes be a good idea to mess around a bit and make your ActionScript code harder to steal. The following review will highlight the features of SWF Protector, analyse the code and impact on SWF file size as well as performance. Read the rest of this entry »

If for whatever reason a lot of your work gets done in Flash IDE and you’re working on the open-source Eclipse Flash development platform, it may get seriously annoying to seek for that tiny Run button on the Eclipse toolbar. To hook up Cmd + Enter* in Eclipse, do the following:

1. Open the Preferences of your Eclipse IDE
2. Locate General > Keys
3. Type Run in the field with type filter text tip in it
4. Scroll down and find the Run command,  it should display Shift + Cmd + F11 by default
5. Click Unbind Command
6. Click the Binding field and Cmd + Enter to set the new shortcut
7. Click Apply and Ok to finish

* the guide applies to Mac OS X version of Eclipse, but can easily deployed for Ctrl + Enter on Windows (or Linux). Read the rest of this entry »

Most cross-platform Flash development tools are not available for free. The best ones, Flash Builder and FDT, will set you back €600.

Fortunately a few open-source and free alternatives exist. AXDT is one such alternative – it’s a set of plug-ins for the Eclipse Platform that enable you to write ActionScript 3 code in an integrated environment. Read the rest of this entry »

LogWatcher is the kind of open-source Eclipse plugin that enables hooking a view of a certain log file to the Eclipse IDE. It comes in handy for open-source AXDT Flash development plugin of Eclipse that currently (at version 0.0.7.1) doesn’t have a built-in debugger and is yet to receive it in milestone 0.1.0. Read the rest of this entry »

Despite the fact that M2 isn’t the final release of FDT 4 and even the feature sets of Pure, Pro and Enterprise versions are yet to be determined, it’s a solid Flash development tool already.

Even so one of the first issues to tackle with on a Mac is the FDT 4 Debugger throwing back Flash sandbox violation. Read the rest of this entry »

The most recent Mac OS X update to version 10.6.3 may break your Eclipse Galileo installation and everything that’s built upon it. It just fails to start and closes down right after it has reached the splash screen.

The problem relies in the corrupt font cache of Snow Leopard and the fix is rather trivial – font cache needs to be cleared using the font registration system utility on command line. Following steps will make it happen: Read the rest of this entry »

It’s pretty certain that an average Flash/RIA developer cares about how the dev tools look. If a piece of software looks ugly, it’s unlikely to be used.

Eclipse in that matter is one such tool. On Mac OS X its Dock icon looks ugly and the splash screen isn’t any better either. To improve this unbearable ugliness on the Dock, here’s a way to

swap this  for this 
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Having Adobe CS4 and Mac OS X Snow Leopard both installed is very likely to mess up Quick Look of Flash ActionScript (.as) and Flex (.mxml) files. Most inconvenient for those used to browsing through the files and looking into them by just hitting the Space key. Read the rest of this entry »