Now if I could find a way to drag text around (and Ctrl-drag text).

1. Elite Media’s getting started. I now use Java 5 and Eclipse 3.2.

2. Next check out Sam Rivello’s talk. Docs and breeze prez. I didn’t make it through the breeze, but the docs are very helpful for setting up the Eclipse environment.

3. Then you’ll need a way to trace for debugging. There are a few options to do this. I use SOS. Daniel Heidecke gives a tutorial on using the SOS debugger here. This example also goes over how to use Flash assets in FDT. Here is the code I always use for setting up SOS (I always you this class as the entry point for apps). After using this code, just use trace(‘text to trace’) like you would in the Flash IDE.

class Main {
private static var sock : XMLSocket;
//main function for MTASC
public static function main() : Void {
Stage.align = "TL";
Stage.scaleMode = "noScale";
//disable trace before sending to client - otherwise can cause a security error
enableTrace();
//start your app here.....e.g....
var myApp:MyApp=new MyApp();
}
private static function enableTrace():Void{
// connect to sos
sock = new XMLSocket();
sock.connect("localhost",4444);
trace("connected");
}
//REMEMBER: add -trace "Main.myTrace" to the MTASC args
public static function myTrace(obj : Object, fullclass : String, file : String, line : Number) : Void {
sock.send("msg: " + obj + "\nclass: " + fullclass + "\nline: " + line + "\n\n");
}
}

That should be enough to get started. After that, take a look at Xavi Bemeula’s tutorial on optimizing FDT. It has lots of Eclipse and FDT development tips.

Finally more helpful links here.