UPDATED: The last version had a CS3 icon. Now it’s CS4.

UPDATED: Another alternative: Setting Flash CS4 to offline mode.

(or if you get a stupid download error, download it here)

Dear Adobe,

So I installed Flash CS4 Professional. It’s nice. I’m happy. Nice job.

… except for one little thing. Y’see, I’m a big fan of having the Language Reference handy at all times. Constantly. It was great the way it was! Maybe a little outdated, fine, but it worked well. And now you’ve switched it so it always goes to the LiveDocs — the latest language reference online. Which bothers me for two reasons.

First is that if I’m on an airplane or lose connectivity, I now no longer have the ability to look up code. This means that my productivity is directly tied to having an Internet connection, which should not be so. I suppose I could just keep a copy of CS3 open…

Second (and far more important) is speed. Now looking up a method means waiting for the page refresh. Browsing the docs for a description of some unknown method or property means waiting for the page to load. !Local == !Instanteous == Slows me down. I want to be fast fast fast.

In short, while I agree that the world is a more connected and the web is a big part of that, forcing developers and engineers to embrace it as part of the development cycle is akin to Apple making their iPhone developers build apps for the iPhone ON the iPhone. We should be cautious with changing things like that. Then again, I suppose I could’ve mentioned this to you during MAX or several months ago or who knows when.

Whatever, it’s your fault.

In the meanwhile , I’ve written a new AIR app that takes the latest Language Reference and makes it all local. I even got a designer here to give it a pretty icon that looks all professional and what not… though he made it a CS3 icon by mistake. Anyhoo, now I’m sharing it with the whole world. So… there it is. Yes. Okay.

Love,
Jamie