Saturday, May 28, 2011

Flash Development on Ubuntu

During my college years I participated in a class where I learned about Flash development.  I had an iBook at the time, and I forked over $99 for FlashMX for Mac OSX.  I learned quite a bit, and I enjoyed working with Flash.  Eventually my iBook stopped working and therefore did not have any way to work with Flash without going to a lab.  Eventually I graduated and the computer lab option disappeared.  So I did some research on working with Flash on Ubuntu.

I found this article on using an Eclipse add-on called FDT to work with Flash.  First and foremost I had to install Eclipse.  I did this through the Ubuntu Software Center.  The article recommended installing version 3.4.2 and listed a link to download that version of Eclipse.  Ubuntu 10.10 Software Center installed Eclipse version 3.5.2, and I have not experienced the error message the author of the article wrote about.

After installing Eclipse, I clicked on the Help menu and choose Install New Software to install FDT.  The next screen prompted me to enter a site.  The article suggested using the site http://fdt.powerflasher.com/update, so I clicked the Add button on the right, entered the site, gave the site a name, and clicked Ok.  The box below listed two versions of FDT:  3.5 and 4.4.  I already had FDT 3.5 installed so I choose to install FDT 4.4 anyways.



After the installation finished I restarted Eclipse.  After Eclipse reloaded, FDT asked for my license key.   I did not have a license key because I did not purchase the software.  I clicked on a link that took me to a page where I can register for a 30 day trial.  Dead end.  I wouldn't have a problem paying for the full version, but buying software does not fit the theme of this blog.  I uninstalled FDT, and that is where this story ends.


I am looking forward to working with Eclipse.  At first glance, Java seems to be the only language someone can work with.  I will be adding more details after I work with Eclipse.

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