Visual Studio Flex development: Amethyst update

Back in December I wrote about some new options for developers using Visual Studio for Flex development – one of the tools I highlighted was Amethyst from SapphireSteel, which is currently available in beta.

As well as working on a free version, which will include Flex and ActionScript code colouring, code formatting and basic intellisense support, SapphireSteel are building a professional edition which will include an integrated drag-and-drop visual interface designer, as well as enhanced intellisense and visual debugging support.

From the screen shots below you can see that development of the visual designer is coming along nicely – with application visual layout, drag-and-drop support for Flex controls, integration with the Visual Studio properties panel for the currently selected component and roundtrip support between design and code view.

It’s interesting to see that rather than just implementing equivalent Flex Builder features like-for-like, Amethyst is adding new features, such as convenient tool bar access for layout and positioning commands.

There’s a short video showing the Amethyst visual designer over on the SapphireSteel blog – that’s also the best place to keep an eye on for developments and announcements on availability for the visual designer in future beta releases of Amethyst.

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