More ActionScript magic for jEdit:
Context-sensitive reference material!
We’re making progress on our quest to create the perfect Mac OS X ActionScript editor: Today, we’re going to integrate the Adobe AS2 and AS3 Language References directly into the open-source jEdit editor, bringing context-sensitive help files up at the stroke of a key!
The InfoViewer is basically a small browser in a floating or docked panel within jEdit. If you don’t already see it, you should be able to find it under your Plugins menu. I prefer to dock mine at the right-hand side of the editor, so it stays out of the way but is generally available. You can do this by selecting the small dropdown arrow in the upper left of any floating dock and choosing which side of the interface on which to dock it:
I’ve created two macros — one to search for information within the ActionScript 2 reference files, and one for the ActionScript 3 files. You can install them both, or just the one that interests you (I’ve got them both installed myself, and I’ve assigned the keyboard shortcuts CMD-F1 to search the AS2 files, and SHIFT-F1 for the AS3 files). To install, you can copy the code below, or simply download and extract the files from this zipped archive and save them in your ~/.jedit/macros directory (or better yet, make a subdirectory called “ActionScript” within the macros folder and keep all your AS macros in one neat section — rather like a TextMate “bundle”).
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Today’s sneak preview of the REAL “Flash Killer”
As one who makes a living creating Flash content and supporting Adobe’s Flash platform, I awoke to something this morning that definitely made me pucker a bit: I witnessed the one thing that could surely put an end to Flash’s dominance and its acceptance as a viable Web solution.
No, it’s not a new tool like Silverlight or OpenLaszlo, and it’s not a new technology like Ajax or Velobrox: It’s the misuse of ActionScript (or at least the perception of a misuse of ActionScript) by Web advertisers who don’t seem to care whether a user sees anything else other than their ad.
This morning, IndieClick began running a SWF-based ad for Cartoon Network channel-sharer Adult Swim (which also relies on Flash heavily for its site), and frankly, they #@$%^@ed it up.
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Going native with jEdit:
New download makes this editor shine
Thus, today’s installment of our ongoing jEdit discussion focuses on getting the open-source editor to look and feel like a friendly, inviting, native OS application. And a big step in that direction is Turdhead’s own OS X icon package released today.
The tips here will focus on fine-tuning application settings and installing new plugins, and will apply to any operating system on which jEdit runs (There are many!), but of course, the settings I’ve chosen for this tutorial happen to look best on OS X.
We’re going to start at ground zero and assume this is the first time you’ve used jEdit. If it’s not, feel free to skip ahead to the “Scrape off the ugly” section below, and the rest of us will meet up with you then.
Now let’s get started.
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Making the perfect AS editor
Part 1: “Test Movie”
I am quickly becoming a big fan of jEdit, a Java-based editor I’d repeatedly (and perhaps unfairly) dismissed in the past. The fact is, there is a huge shortage of good ActionScript editors available for my chosen platform (OS X), and the more I use the popular commercial options, the more I realize I don’t want to work “Mac-like;” I want to work the same way I work when I’m not using my own computer at home. With a little work, and a whole lot of customizing (through macros, plugins and other magic), I really think jEdit can meet my needs on any platform now.
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I’m actually happy with my ActionScript editor… on OS X!
After years of lamenting the lack of a good editor on OS X, I’ve actually found something that’s working — and working well — for me. For everybody who has tried jEdit in the past… it’s time to try it again. I’ve been hammering away on it lately, adapting it to the workflow I developed using SEPY and FlashDevelop on Windows, and I think I’ve actually got an editor I could learn to love — on any platform I’d ever want! (It runs on Mac, PC, Linux, BSD, etc.)
It’s still not quite as fun to use as FlashDevelop on the PC, but it’s getting there. Unlike Eclipse, it doesn’t define your workflow (requiring projects and workspaces to be set up before you can even start editing), and unlike TextMate, it actually feels more like the great AS editors I miss from my Windows days.
Kudos to the jEdit developers for a great job so far. Next step: Complete ActionScript 3.0 integration with its snazzy Sidekick plugin.