First, you are free to use any text editor available for Linux. I use GEdit as I really like this little editor. With the correct plugins GEdit becomes a powerful editor for programmers. First of all, we want our ActionScript 3 code to look as good as it does with the FlexBuilder. So I created an ActionScript 3 language file for GEdit(mainly for personal use but you can get it here).
Then you have to install the Adobe Flash Player 9 for Firefox. As there are many HowTos around for doing so I will redirect you to one. Click here for a good Howto.
Finally, what we need is the compiler, the free Flex SDK 2.0.1. Go to the adobe site and download the .zip Archive.(http://www.adobe.com/products/flex/downloads/) Remember where you downloaded your file. I created a new directory in my home .flex, where I extracted the .zip archive. Then go to this directory, cd .flex/bin, and make the compiler executable, chmod +x mxmlc. That's it, you have got everything you need to start programming ActionScript 3 and create your own swf movies.
As usual, let the first application be the Hello World! test. Open your editor of choice. And enter the following code. This is not an ActionScript 3 tutorial, if you want to learn on how to use AS3, I refer you to some other tutorials(in the References section below).
package {
import flash.display.Sprite;
import flash.text.TextField;
public class HelloWorld extends Sprite {
public function HelloWorld() {
var display_txt:TextField = new TextField();
display_txt.text = "Hello World!";
addChild(display_txt);
}
}
}
Save your file as HelloWorld.as. Now change directory to where your compiler is located, cd ~/.flex/bin. And then simply execute ./mxmlc ~/path/to/your/file/HelloWorld.as. A HelloWorld.swf file is created in the same folder, where your HelloWorld.as file is located. What needs to be done is to redirect Firefox to the swf movie and VOILA! Have Fun to develop FLASH/AS3 under Linux!