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Inspiring
May 1, 2007
Question

Reality Check: Flash CS3/AS3 Check Syntax

  • May 1, 2007
  • 27 replies
  • 2789 views
I need a quick reality check. I've finally started playing around in CS3/AS3 on my Mac. Whenever I click "check syntax" I get a very limited error response: specifically, I get actual syntactical errors (e.g., a missing brace or paren), but I get NO COMPILER ERRORS (e.g., use of an undefined method or property). These compiler errors trigger at runtime, but not having them during authoring makes coding and debugging unnecessarily difficult.

Is this really how it's supposed to work?

In Flash8/AS2, we had compile-checking right in the AS file. If I attempted to access an undefined method or property, the error-checker would catch that right away. No time-consuming compile was necessary to catch these obvious errors (see example below). But AS3 doesn't seem to be as clever.

Am I missing something?

Thanks much!

-------------EXAMPLE---------------
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27 replies

Inspiring
May 3, 2007
To report a bug:
http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform&product=15

Definitely let them know about this or any other bugs you come across. As with any major new build, there are bound to be hiccups, and we can only hope that Adobe will be attentive to the needs of their developers.
Inspiring
May 3, 2007
My friend also checked it out on his system and was completely surprised by the lack of syntax checking as well.

How do you report a bug to Adobe? I want to send one in as well. Also hopefully Bentley Wolfe will come by and get this on his list of things to find out about! Please, please.
Inspiring
May 2, 2007
Thanks for checking. I've lodged it as a bug report with Adobe. Perhaps if others do the same, they'll get the message that this is an unacceptable situation and issue a patch.
Inspiring
May 2, 2007
Well I've had somebody else check it in Windows and they don't get any error messages either.

This is very strange and it really does make the built in editor almost useless for AS3. The suggestion I got was to use Flex Builder. But I would rather keep it all in Flash – at least until I have a clue what i"m doing! :)
Inspiring
May 2, 2007
Rothrock, thanks for the feedback. I mentioned this at another forum and have so far been greeted essentially by silence. (One person replied, but seemed to think that this was how it was supposed to work).

Syntax checking without basic property/method evaluation is next to useless. This feels more like a bug than a feature to me.

I can't really understand how this isn't more of a concern to more people (unless, as you say, this is a Mac-only mistake).

If I learn more, I'll post it here. Thanks.
Inspiring
May 2, 2007
Another note, when I set the publish status of the target FLA back to AS2 and modify the class so it is appropriate for AS2, then I do get errors when I do a Syntax Check. Curious.

I hope this isn't something they just left out of the Mac version. :(
Inspiring
May 2, 2007
I think you are right. This is crazy and why nobody is talking about it is very strange. There doesn't seem to be any way to set which flavor of class you are writing.

There is a bit of a awkward way. First you have to open a FLA and you set its publish settings. Then back in your class you can select that FLA as a target. If you set that file to AS2 you will get the warnings. But if you put it as AS3 you don't. That is so bizarre and unexpected.

Maybe there is something we're missing, but I don't know what it is. Anybody? I hope it is something simple and that I'll just smack my head.
Inspiring
May 2, 2007
So I've been doing a bit of testing and here is where I've got so far.

I have the retail version of CS3 that came as part of the Design Premium. And I'm on a Mac 10.4.9.

I created a New Actionscript File.

I created a New Flash File (AS 3) and instantiated an instance of my class.

Save them both in the same folder.

Went to the Actionscript file, pasted in the "class" and made sure the target was the Flash file.

When I "Check Syntax" from the actionscript file I get no errors or warnings. But when I publish I do get warnings.

Seems to be too little too late though. Is this how it is supposed to work?

PS: The class as listed above isn't really proper AS3. So I've used this below.