When comparing FlashDevelop vs Brackets, the Slant community recommends Brackets for most people. In the question“What are the best programming text editors?” Brackets is ranked 17th while FlashDevelop is ranked 41st. The most important reason people chose Brackets is:
Brackets will automatically refresh the browser and load the latest saved version of a file open in the browser. This works with php as well. Editing a css will even highlight the tag that's currently being worked on. However, it only works with Chrome.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Free
FlashDevelop comes without any cost.
Pro Haxe development support
FlashDevelop has first-class support for Haxe development, the open source toolkit based on a modern programming language and cross-platform library.
Pro Good code completion
FlashDevelop's code completion is pretty good.
Pro Excellent support for Actionscript 2 and 3 (Flash)
Although everyone claims Flash is dead, it's still quite useful for game developers due to its rapid compile and run times, as well as its great debugging functionality with FlashDevelop.
Pro Good number of project templates
While it's project template system is not the best compared to it's competitors, it still is decent and is a good way to generate some boilerplate code.
Pro XML/HTML completion
FlashDevelop has XML/HTML completion aside from code completion.
Pro .NET Framework 2.0 application
It's windows only, but has tremendous support from plugin developers and a dedicated team that's been developing it for close to 10 years.
Pro Source-control support (svn, git, mercurial)
Pro Great debugging
FlashDevelop provides very efficient debugging features.
Pro Supports Zen-coding for HTML
This is very useful for carrying out high-speed HTML coding and editing.
Pro Snippets
Pro Tasks/todo
Pro SWF/SWC exploration
Pro Great project compilation
FlashDevelop facilitates project compilation.
Pro Decent code generation
Although the code generation can't really be called top-notch, it's decent and sufficient for most developers.
Pro Built-in browser live-updating
Brackets will automatically refresh the browser and load the latest saved version of a file open in the browser. This works with php as well. Editing a css will even highlight the tag that's currently being worked on. However, it only works with Chrome.
Pro Lightweight
Brackets is easy on memory usage and it starts up quickly.
Pro Free, open source and cross-platform
Brackets is entirely free and open source.
Pro Built-in extension manager
The functionality of Brackets can be extended via a simple-to-use extension manager. The extension manager also has a considerable number of extensions and themes.
Pro Can style a tag without switching over to the stylesheet
A feature called "Quick Edit" allows the user to select a tag in (a html file, for example) and edit the associated style without switching over to the css document. It also supports SASS and LESS pre-processors.
Pro Actively developed
Brackets is being actively maintained and developed.
Pro Popup previews
Hovering over colors hex codes or image paths will pop up previews of corresponding colors and images.
Pro Drag and drop support
Brackets supports drag and drop of text, as well as multi / rectangular selection.
Pro Can be hacked by any front-end developer
The editor is built using html, css, and javascript, making it extendable by any front-end developer.
Pro Multi-line (multi-query) editing
You can have your cursor independently on multiple lines and so creating templates and/or editing multiple things at once is really fast and easy.
Pro Vim mode
Vim-style editing is already built in the text editor.
Pro Support for Adobe PSD content
A default extension allows for the extraction of PSD resources, such as images and styles. There's good integration for placing extracted resources into source.
Cons
Con Windows only
FlashDevelop is for Windows only, and it's not cross-platform either.
Con Haxe debugging is in its infancy
Although FlashDevelop supports breakpoint debugging on Flashplayers, native Haxe applications (C++) can't be easily debugged within FlashDevelop.
Con Still missing some elementary text editor commands
Some gaps have to be filled by plugins, while these features should be built in.
For example:
- Jump to matching brace (bracket / parenthesis);
- Gutter selection of lines;
- Recall previous searches / replacements;
- Autofill of search field with text under caret (text has to be selected);
- Show whitespace / end of lines / indentation guides / right margin;
- Selection to upper / lower case;
and some more.
Con Problematic updater
Though the website says there is an update available, the updater in Brackets may give you an error, resulting in you having to download updates manually.
Con Slow
Con Supports only web languages by default <but>
Brackets is built for web development and that's where it excels at out of the box. Other languages that have a CodeMirror mode can be added as well.
<and language support plugins can be added>