Alcon
Alcon is a lightweight debugging tool for ActionScript developers that provides several straightforward and quickly accessible methods to debug any ActionScript 2 or ActionScript 3 application, be it from the Web Browser, the standalone Flash Player or an AIR Runtime. It offers an easy way to output debug information from anywhere, not just while in the Flash IDE or in the Flex Debugger. It comes packed with an Application Monitor that can monitor the framerate and memory consumption, an Object Inspector for viewing the properties of any Object, Array or Class and up to two File Loggers. Alcon runs on any platform that supports Adobe AIR and can be used with the Flex compiler, the Flash IDE or MTASC.
Features in Version 3
- Rewritten for Adobe AIR.
- Trace API to output any kind of data in the same fashion ActionScript’s own trace method does but with severity levels, filtering and recursive object tracing.
- A new App Monitor that monitors Framerate, Frame Render Time and Memory Consumption.
- A completely new Object Inspector to view the properties of Objects, Arrays and Classes.
- Included Help-Panel for quick access to Help and API documentation.
- Supports ActionScript 2 and 3.
- Two File Loggers which can be activated optionally to monitor log files.
- Options Dialog to comfortably configure settings like background and text colors, output font and many other preferences.
- Auto-Update.
Screenshots
Alcon's Object Inspector
Alcon's Help Panel
Download
Alcon requires Adobe AIR to run. Get it here!
[Download Alcon v3.1.3]Alcon Support Forum
Please user the forum at forums.hexagonstar.com for any support-related issues about Alcon.
Hi, I have issues installing alcon’s 3.1.4 update. I then went to register in the forum to post there, but I had issues with the Clickcha captcha…
“Unable to verify Clickcha. Please contact the webmaster if this problem persists.”
Hi,
Love the software! It’s really really useful.
Any chance you’d be willing to open-source it or include support for remote connections?
Cheers,
Theo
@Theo Denovan
Yes, many features were (uhmm, are) planned for Alcon v4, and also to make it OS. But so far I haven’t had time to really work on it. I’ve decided now that I’m going to rewrite the whole app after Flex 4 and AIR 2.0 is ready for prime-time.
Cool, looking forward to it.
If you’re ever looking for some help, let me know.
Hello.
There is one strong argument not to use this debugging tool : message lag!!!
I like Alcon, I like FPS graph… I like idea or Inspect…
Problem is.. that if alcon gets message flood – it starts to lag. It not only lags messages. if you close swf application alcon will never show lagged messages.
TEST : swf traces Event.ENTER_FRAME in 120 fps swf movie :
Flash trace messages shown – 500,1500,3000,10000;
SOS max – 500,1500,3000,10000;
Alcon – 470,970,1500,3000;
this must be fixed for this app to have a future…
@Deril
Yes, I know of this problem. The bad news is there’s not much we can do about this atm because it’s the Flex Text Area which causes the lag, in particular with HTML enabled text. The fuller the Ta gets, the slower it becomes and has all the Local Connection etc. lagging behind it.
@sascha
)
what do you mean … nothing can be done…? (My mote : there is always more then 2 solutions!
IDEA : remove flex text area? add simple TextField. then cache all messages in memory.. and show only x last line of it? … and add custom scroll bar?
(who uses slow over-bloated flex components anyway?
)
oh yes… and add resizing functionality for text field and scroll bar on window resize..
or… maybe you would like to open source it…?
@Deril
Alcon is written in Flex so it was quite obvious to use the Flex TextArea. I know they are often not the fastest ones but they speed up development and are relatively easy to re-design.
What you could do now to reduce lag in Alcon is to make it’s textbuffer smaller (under Options/Trace). This will make Alcon clear it’s text buffer faster if it goes over the amount. Trade-off is that very long log outputs are cleared from the buffer.
Have to look into possibilities about improving the performance when I get around to it!
Hello!
This tool is very powerful you are, I have been using, in this thank you, now I have a question, that is, when the large volume of data, Alcon output up will be very slow, sometimes will be card dead. Do not know can improve staff? I am sorry, please forgive me for unreasonable demands.
sorry,I don’t know how to use it,I think it work as trace in flash ,the version of Alcon3.1.4 I used
very good!