Recently a lot of buzz about PrimalScript. A while back, it was about SE|PY, before that, SciteFlash.
Personally, I would love to stay in the IDE full time for editing. Particularly in MX. It always just seemed clunky to put an #include line on a frame and switch back and forth between two programs. Of course, there was Flush to run the movie in Flash, which helped. But having an editor which was “as good as” the Flash IDE editor was not good enough. There had to be at least one killer feature to make it worth it for me to jump out of the IDE. For me, that killer feature was code folding. I fell in love with SciteFlash.
Then, along came MX 2004. In one sense, having classes implemented as external .as files made the idea of using an external editor much more palatable. But two drawbacks: One is that Flush doesn’t seem to like to run 2004. The other is that my favorite editor, SciteFlash does not support AS2. Add to that the project panel in 2004, which allows you to test the main fla while editing an .as file. I made a donation to help push SciteFlash into 2004, and I look forward to the new version. But in the meantime, I had to shelve it.
Then, along came SE|PY. AS2 support and code folding. I figured out how to use a simple JSFL file to make a test movie shortcut. It also has some other cool features that SciteFlash didn’t. It’s still under active development, and is free!
Then, along came PrimalScript 3.1. This has lots of high-end features, but lacks the one killer feature I love SciteFlash and SE|PY for. A lot of people love this editor. I’m not sold yet, but I’m forcing myself to use it for a week or so to see what the excitement is about. But knowing that 3.1 is a public beta, and the “real” version costs something like $179, unless I have an epiphany, I don’t think I’ll be making the switch. Maybe I’m missing something big. I’d love to hear what people consider the killer features of PrimalScript has over something like SE|PY. Or, if there’s another contender in the market, I’d like to hear about it.
Links:
SciteFlash
SE|PY
PrimalScript