Mental Notes » Eclipse

FDT & automatic class name generation in Flash CS3

stephan — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 20:48:08 +0000

The function flash.utils.getDefinitionByName has been discussed in various other places (amongst others here and of course in the documentation), but it took a bit of a mental jump to use it as the solution for the problem that linked library instances without a class are not known inside FDT.Suppose we have a library item with a linkage id of “square”, and we decide not to attach a class to it. Flash CS3 reminds us that it will create one for us, and if we code inside the Flash IDE, we can happily write: var s:Sprite = new square(); addChild(s);However, FDT will show an error, because it doesn’t have a clue what you’re talking about. To solve this, use getDefinitionByName("square"), as shown in the following example:

package {
import flash.display.MovieClip;
import flash.display.Sprite;
import flash.utils.getDefinitionByName;
public class Application extends MovieClip {
private static const LINKAGE_SQUARE:String = "square";
public function Application () {
var s:Sprite = new (getDefinitionByName(LINKAGE_SQUARE))();
addChild(s);
}
}
}

More JavaDocs comments in ActionScript in Eclipse

stephan — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 13:21:42 +0000

With the FDT plugin, Eclipse turns your JavaDoc comments into popups that appear whenever hovering over a code that has JavaDoc comments attached to it. This can be any class, member variable or function. Attaching comments is done by putting a comment right over the element you wish to attach it to, in JavaDoc style:
/**my comment for myElement*/ myElement

For a long time, it has been a habit to use long separation lines consisting of dashes for functions. Though this may increase separation of functions in a class file a little, those long lines also appear in the popup that Eclipse creates. It is therefore strongly recommended to let go of the little dashes, and use “clean” comments, like this:
/** * The function description * @param ...: a parameter description * @return : description of the return value */

For public variables, a single line JavaDoc comment can be added on the line over the declaration:
/** objects of type MyData */ public var myList:Array;

JavaDoc comments for member variables in Actionscript

stephan — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 13:52:36 +0000

When defining a member variable of type Array, put a Javadoc comment (/** */) on the line above the declaration, so it will appear when hovering over a reference to the member variable. Example:
/** of type SubjectData */ private var mSubjects : Array;