Why the is flexbuilder plugin for eclipse so slow to open and compile?

Question

I've got a decent computer. ( something with dual-core in the name and a lot of ram ). Sometime FlexBuilder prompt the "builder project" loading bar only when i open a simple mxml file. It's look like he does some difficult jobs... i don't ask for anything fancy. I just want the file open, in text mode. Every time i hit ctrl+s, i fear the "building project who take forever" thing. I've disable the automatic build, but it's not convenient.

Another thing, more understandable. I'v got a Ant task who compile our code with the flexBuilderSdk. It's take forever ( like 2 min for 100 .as file and 20 .mxml file ).

For the two question : Is that normal ? Can i do something ? Because it's killing my productivity ! ( no, seriously ;-) )

Have you any previous experience where it compiled a lot faster? — Steve, May 07 '09 at 08:13
Yes. All the other. ( gcc, javac ). Like i said, i can understand the compilation issues. But definitivly not the opening issue, it must exist a config for tell flexbuilder to "just open the file" — Antoine Claval, May 07 '09 at 08:42

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered May 07 '09 at 14:35

Flex compiler performance is known to be pretty slow. They are making an effort to improve compiler performance for Flex 4. See the developer notes here:

http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/flexsdk/Notes+on+Compiler+Performance+Improvements

Compiling a Flex application is a 2-step process. First, the MXML files are compiled into the equivalent ActionScript classes. If you add the "-keep" compiler parameter, you'll be able to see all these files in a folder called "generated." After the AS3 classes are created, then the AS compiler turns these into bytecode in the form of a .SWF file.

If you have a slow hard disk (say a 5400 RPM laptop drive) that will also affect the performance of compilation. I would definitely recommend disabling "Build Automatically" and just press CTRL-B when you want to build. It's not very difficult to do that when you want to build, much better than waiting for a compile every time you change a file.

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered May 08 '09 at 09:10

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The above mentioned improvements have also been backported to the Flex 3 SDK by Brian Deitte. You can try this out at his blog. It is way faster.

answered May 08 '09 at 09:10

anirudhsasikumar

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The compilation was taking 2min, now it's 1min50sec .... not very convincing. But indeed, it's faster. – Antoine Claval May 13 '09 at 10:23
The improvement affects re-compilation the most. First time, there won't be much of a difference. – anirudhsasikumar May 25 '09 at 08:44

score 1 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:01

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Use the settings in [How can I reduce Eclipse Ganymede's memory use? and read the article calderas sent.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:01

Community

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answered Jul 09 '09 at 21:35

stevedbrown

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score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 03 '09 at 20:26

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There are some tweaks you can do with the Flex Builder Configuration

More here: Link

answered Jun 03 '09 at 20:26

calderas

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This tweaks is well know for eclipse user. It increase the amount of ram that FB is allowed to use. Not helpfull for me, the value is already to 2 GB. – Antoine Claval Jun 04 '09 at 13:47

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered May 20 '09 at 09:08

anirudhsasikumar mark a point : Improvement of the Flex4 SDK have been backported. http://www.deitte.com/archives/2008/10/a%5Ffaster%5Fflex%5F3.htm It's a little bit faster, but i encounter some problem with firefox then. ( Dont ask why ! ) The issue : The result SWF work on IE7, but not on Firefox ( unlimited waiting at the loading )

But a real improvement of the building is to use FCSH, to avoid compile the same file two time. It's improve the performance drasticly.

http://wildwinter.blogspot.com/2008/04/fcsh-wrapper-for-ant.html

Why the is flexbuilder plugin for eclipse so slow to open and compile?

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