Since last year’s FDT 4 launch, we released five free major updates. With FDT 5 we want to start something even bigger, go further and become technology-independend. Flash and Flex will still be the #1 technologies to go with FDT but with haXe it will also focus on HTML 5, JavaScript, WebGL, PHP as well as technologies for mobile platforms like iOS and Android.
While developing FDT, we realized that the number of editions needed to be reduced. We have taken community feedback and switched to a simple model: With FDT 5 we will introduce FDT Free.
FDT Free is going to replace Pure and Plus and be available for free.
The premium version of FDT is going to stay and still be called FDT Max. FDT Max will not only gain in features, we also decided to reduce the price. As of now FDT will be available for just 499€.
The exact featureset of the versions will be announced with the release. So stay tuned until our next announcement…
Share the news on Twitter or Facebook and win an FDT 5 Max license:
2nd step of @FDT 5 announcement online introducing FDT Free! FDT Max is more affordable as well http://bit.ly/qVdPkZ
Thats really great! But as a new customer I have no idea what you’re talking about. I exactly followed the basic tutorial to draw a circle in a flash web app and it doesn’t compile. How do I know max isn’t a POS also?
Please enumerate which features are available locked in Free and which features are available in Max.
Thank you!
Charlie
come on
Wow Daniel!
That really means a lot to su, especially since you’ve been a long time customer. Thanks so much for your support and stay tuned for even more surprises about to be unleashed!
Got the FDT5 Max license yesterday. After working for a couple of hours i’m sure, fdt5 max is for me the best ide for developing flash based projects. In past i used fdt3 and 4 but fdt5 max is really the best fdt ever.
FDT5 Team, you did a great job!
@Christoph,
Thanks for pointing that out. We’ll look into that. I agree that can be annoying.
@Alan:
In your example Linked Ressources might be not the best way. But for me, FDT without Linked Ressources is useless. I’m working with Flash since Version 2. In my projects i use my own mvc framework with lots an utils, helper and many classes. The framework is compatible to all my work and will be updated time by time. Now using FTD5 free, i’ve to copy all the files to each project. When an update occurs, i’ve to do it once again…..
Loving programming with FDT since version 3 but now, i switch back to flash develop and Flex 4. In version 4 flash develop is very powerfull, linked ressources included…
I understand the sense to make a limited free version, i sell some flash widgets in demoversion, too. The most of us are programming not just for fun. We all have to make money. I’m sure, fdt5 max is the money worth, but for the moment, too much for me….
Hey guys, some thoughts about Linked Resources.
When designing the feature set of FDT Free, one barometer was to be comparable to FlashDevelop and better than Text Editors. Another was to determine which features were ‘programming style’ and ‘good practices’ – Linked Resources (Libraries) falls mostly in both these categories.
Programming Style: If I asked a group of 20 developers, who was using Linked Resources, 5 or so may raise their hand. If the same group were asked, who uses autocomplete and error highlighting all would raise their hand. To me, this makes it feel more like a style rather than a ‘must have’.
Good Practice: I’ll share my personal experiences with Linked Resources… when I started programming Flash 5-6 years ago, I always used Linked Resources with ‘clever’ setups. After freelancing for a while I started working with an agency with very talented engineers… they quickly shut down my Linked Resources habit.
Two biggest reasons….
Deprecated Libraries: When a project is completed, then has to be revisited 6-12 months later, you better to make sure all your Linked Resources are still valid; otherwise, when you open up your project it’s going to be broken. I can’t stress how frustrating it is to scour the internet trying to find Framework X version X.X.X – which is a version that is 5 releases ago and the API has since changed.
Can’t Share Projects: Linked Resources are particular to one workspace / user / machine. Wanna make your coding buddy, or future you, angry ? Create linked resources. When the project is checked out…the workspace is gonna light up with errors because it’s looking for a library that doesn’t exist in the project. The single…MOST important rule to versioning a project is: when it’s checked out from a repository it must contain all source code and not be broken. It should compile immediately with no errors regardless of workspace. Linked Resources break this rule.
This was the reasoning behind the omission of Linked Resources in FDT Free.
On a personal note, I encourage every developer to not use Linked Resources. I’ve had too many horror stories because of this.
If you have to use the technique of Linked Resources, create another project and use that as a ‘Library Project’ – which is then versioned (tagged) and saved in the same repository as your project.
This is taken from a response I did on G+ already
Agreed with Mark, the Free version is unusable without linked ressources.
There are lots of open source libraries that are not available with swc out there. Pure and Plus had this functionalities i believe.
So none of my current projects made with FDT3 Max that i am working on is viable with FDT5 free.
And noticed the strong typing not working perfectly with Haxe.
On the positive side, FDT5 is much faster, even simpler to manage stuff (if we are allowed to), great haxe integration and the usual light speed code completion and error checking are still aces.
I just had a chance to start working with FDT5 free and I have to say that I am disappointed that I can’t even have linked projects or resources in the free version among other things. I think it is awesome that you guys are even offering a free version, but with it being so limited I would be forced to buy the Max version. There is no way I am spending $600 just to get some basic project features.
Guess I am sticking with Flash Builder for now.
@Mark, indeed not very useful most of my projects use Linked resources back to 4 I guess… or cough up 499.
Hi guys,
the first look (talking about the free version) was very good. But after playing around for a while i noticed, that there are many restrictions for the freemium version. Too often in the freemium version i get only the notice: “This feature is only available in FDT Max Edition”
Especially using Linked Ressources should be available in free version too.
A great day! I already love FDT5 🙂
@Slavomir
We won’t be having any special PHP debugging.
Hi guys, great news!
Will the fdt 5 support php debuging ? (using xdebug, zend or your own method) ?
guys, that’s a HUUUGE news!
thank you for this wonderful gift
Maybe ahead of the Flash Builder curve in pricing, but behind the FlashDevelop curve 😉
[FDT5] – FDT Pure et Plus gratuit!…
Cette semaine l’équipe de Powerflasher nous éclaire sur la future offre tarifaire. Au lieu d’avoir une offre partagée en 3 versions (Pure, Plus et Max), ils n’en garderont plus que 2….
Once again guys you are ahead of the curve. Keep getting stronger.
More blessings,
]a[
Sounds really very cool. I’m completely in… but I also hope you will provide a better flow of choosing and downloading/installing which versioning you would like, what other plugins you would like to install etc. Currently it’s a bit of a pain to get it all running smoothly. I now know how to do it and eventually everyone will, but this flow could (in my humble opinion) be much better integrated in FDT. Ah well, I still like where you’re going with FDT. 🙂 Good luck!
This is really cool guys. Noticed a grammar issue in the post above.
“FDT Free is going to replace Pure and Plus and really be available for free.”
Think that should read something like:
“FDT Free is going to replace Pure and Plus and if really available for free.”
Unless you guys are busting out ebonics these days 🙂