Compilation:
The MXML/COMPC/ASC compilers have been optimized within this release of Flex. The changes support class caching during the compilation process and result in much faster compilation times. In testing projects of various sizes, typically the first compilation will be about 30-40% faster than prior versions but the N+1 compilations are now limited to the classes that have changed resulting in orders of magnitude improvement. Given we typically are only changing one class at a time, this results in a very solid performance enhancement for compilation.
Language Intelligence:
The core language intelligence within the Flex Builder IDE has been dramatically improved to contain full knowledge of MXML/AS3/CSS assets during development. This might not seem like a big deal until you realize that it enables Refactoring, Code Search, Code Outline, Syntax highlighting, and Code completion. The work here changes the core of Flex Builder and enables much more advanced tooling.
Refactoring:
Flex Builder 3 supports refactoring for method renaming, class renaming, and variable renaming. Change the class name via refactoring and all instances, references, strong typing will change as a result. It allows you to make massive changes within a project quickly and consistently.
Class Outline:
The Class Outline view now supports imports and all the enhancements to Language Intelligence. I keep finding this new view to be a great addition for exploring larger projects. Given the ability to find methods and properties easily, combined with code search it becomes very useful.
Code Search:
Within Flex Builder simply select any variable and press CRTL+G to search globally. The resulting search panel will locate all instances of this variable, method, or property within your project.
Profiler:
If there were 3 things that will define the Flex 3 release, the Profiler is in the top 3. It is game changing to see inside your application running in Flash Player or Apollo. It will quickly show you how much memory is allocated to instances, allow you to force Garbage Collection, and see what the internals of your application are doing. It is a mountain of information about your projects and I think this feature will improve the quality of Flex applications for a long time to come.
Module Support:
The Module and ModuleLoader has been fully integrated into Flex Builder.
Multiple SDK Support:
Flex Builder now supports multiple SDKS and allows you to switch SDK's easily. This allows you to fully use Flex Builder 3 for projects using FXSDK 2.0.1, any hotfix, or the new Moxie SDK. It also allows you to customize your own SDK and use that configuration across projects. Provided all developers have identically named SDK's, these when projects are shared the compiler settings will work seamlessly.
Wednesday I will be covering new framework components and features. Look for some samples of the new Advanced DataGrid, deep linking, and SQL in AS3?
Cheers,
Ted :)
