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Like the official site and this thread says, FlashDevelop comes with a debugger. But it doesn't always work for me.

I switched to FlashDevelop from CS and at first I used it with CS, like this: FlashCS3Workflow. Then I wanted to try this workflow: FlexAndFlashCS3Workflow and everything was right. But as my project grew, the debugger stopped woking at times.

Even now, I can put a brakepoint in some classes that get used at the beginning of the program, but if I put a breakpoint in some small or rarely used class it never gets hit. But the code where the breakpoint is gets executed.

I tried with Debug -> Start Remote Session but it didn't help. Why are the breakpoints not being hit? I think I missed somenthing in the workflow or in setupping my project, but what?

The exapmle above is for CS3 and I'm using CS5, is that the problem? I also downloaded the Adobe Flash Player Debugger and I installed it but it didn't help. Any ideas?

Gama11
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Mentoliptus
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4 Answers4

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I've been having the same problem too.

It's very nasty - the workaround posted by DoomGoober does not work for me either.

So far, my findings are this:

A It happens if part of the sources are in folders that are actually symbolic links - if you forgot to refresh the project view after moving or renaming a file.

B The first time that it was really bugging me, I phased out all untyped class references (like var obj:* = ...), and replaced them by Object type references (like var obj:Object = ...). (because I noticed before, that some other arcane errors occurred when using Vector.<*> types in an .swc - and I phased them out first). That seemed to help.

C However, later, the problem returned. Reproducably, so far, I can "fix" the problem when it occurs as follows: I know it's hard to believe - if I hadn't reproducably tested it myself - I could barely believe it:

  1. I Copied the entire folder tree of the project (including sources, etc) to an USB-drive (E: drive. The sources were originally on my D: drive, a harddisk).
  2. From that E:drive, I opened the project and built it there (takes ages, but ok).
  3. Then the debugger worked fine.
  4. Close FlashDevelop.
  5. Copy back the folder tree from E: drive to D:drive.
  6. The debugger still works fine. - problem "fixed" !?

Note: I tried the same trick by copying to another harddisk (my F: drive), but that didn't work?!?

It's vague and arcane - but better that than not being able to step in half of the classes. Keeping my fingers crossed it will keep working..

Marius Versteegen
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    Thanks for the help. I'll try the aproach C when I open some of those old projects. I've switched to FD only (no CS, no symbols, composition instead of inheritance) and the debugger works fine. – Mentoliptus Apr 26 '12 at 15:28
  • Why do you think this works? Do you think Flash is having a problem building files on the C drive? Do you think running Flash as administrator would fix the problem? I vaguely recall accidentally dragging a file into an adjacent folder in FlashDevelop before this started occuring... makes me wonder. – Triynko May 09 '14 at 19:33
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I had a problem with FlashDevelop not hitting breakpoints at all. I installed the trial version of Flash, then set the default program for swf files to the flash debugger player. This was located in adobe/(adobe flash)/players/debug/FlashPlayerDebugger.exe.

I don't know if this is helpful or not with the issue you had, because I wasn't able to hit breakpoints at all, but maybe it will help someone.

EDIT: I also found if you install the FlexSDK, it comes with FlashPlayerDebugger.exe which is used while debugging in FlashDevelop.

Gama11
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iedoc
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0

What appears to work sometimes, is:

Build and Debug the project on FlashPro CS5.5 once.

Or:

Introduce a compiler error (a random punch on the keyboard, for instance) in the file where the breakpoint is not functioning. Let FD build and choke on it. Remove the introduced error. Let FD build again.

That may solve the problems for the Debugger of FlashDevelop.

Marius Versteegen
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A workaround is to put a breakpoint in your main class' constructor. FlashDevelop will hit that breakpoint and magically all of your other breakpoints will start working.

DoomGoober
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  • I tried that. The breakpoint in the main class are hit at the beginning, but after a few clicks, even those in the main class stop to work :( – Mentoliptus Jan 01 '12 at 15:35