Classpath Annoyance

I finally got bit by the classpath ordering that Flash utilizes. I finally know what Grant was talking about over a year ago, cause at the time, I had no fuggin’ clue what a classpath was.

I hope the order is reversed in both Flash 8, and Flex (haven’t dug to see how they deal with classes yet). I kept changing my code, but Flash wouldn’t recognize the new property I put into my class no matter what I did. Turns out I had installed an older version of my extension which installed the base classes in Flash’ classes directory… where Flash looks first. BS Flash… look at MY code first, NOT yours. How dare you presume to override my project when you don’t even know anything about it. To make matters worse, I have to futz around in your innards just so you pay attention to me? Hell with that.

Anyway, a gotcha to look for if your a component developer and you distribute your source via MXP’s. Uninstall before you re-test your code or you’ll wonder why Flash is ignoring you.

2 Replies to “Classpath Annoyance”

  1. um…doesn’t it just look in the order the directories are listed in the AS Settings Panel? There is nothing magical about the location of the standard classes other than the fact that they are listed first. There are even little arrow buttons to move them up and down to change the order Flash looks.

  2. Aye, you can change it on the global level via your edit preferences, and you can change it on your FLA level (still don’t know the priority level there), but the point is the defaults are backwards.

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