I was just thinking about this lately:
The main purpose of a framework and IDE is supposed to ease development, and not introduce obstacles in the development process. Ideally, it should also be an enjoyable experience using them.
Sadly, many people I talk to find that developing Flash content is getting less enjoyable, more time-consuming and difficult. One of the reasons is learning and using the new components and framework. The IDE should make this easier and enjoyable.
The IDE can help by doing common things that almost everyone needs, eliminate steps that are repetitive in the development process, insert code that are predictable (a simple example: handling web services/remoting calls, data-binding, broadcasters and listeners)…etc.
If 8Ball can bring back the fun in development, and help getting things done more quickly, it’d be a killer.
What should be included in the next Flash IDE to make your life easier?