title: why are there dedicated ActiveScript editors, like FlashDevelop, if you cannot make SWF with them?
body: <p>suppose I want to make a small SWF app, basically a couple of buttons, textboxes and event handlers. Something like this in C# or Java would be a single easily readable source code file that can be compiled with a freely available compiler and run. Now, I may be a clueless newbie here, but so far, from what I can see, the only way to make a file that can be compiled to SWF is to make a FLA file, and that requires the official IDE.</p>
  
  <p>Well, so if there is no way of going around the FLA file, why do people bother with the special editors for ActionScript? What am I missing here? Or are they actually able to somehow "debug" the app without seeing it in WYSIWYG format and without generating an SWF file? If so, do they eventually generate an SWF file on a friend's machine that has the IDE or what do they do for the final product?</p>