You can compile a haXe program to a .swf file. haXe can compile for Flash Players 6 to 10, with either "old" Flash<8 API or newest AS3/Flash9+ API. haXe offers very good performance and language features to develop Flash content.

haXe syntax is very similar to AS2 & AS3, but has some added language features and optimizations such as inlining, type inference, enums, typed arrays, generics, and more. If you know AS2 or 3 writing haXe should be easy.

As an opensource project, haXe is fast moving and is rapidly adding many features and optimizations which are missing in the Flash and Flex compilers. It also has the benefit of targeting multiple platforms which enables actionscript developers to apply their existing skills to a variety of tasks.

haXe vs Flash IDE

The Flash IDE is the perfect tool for creating, animating and arranging vector graphics. It was never intended for larger scale applications (especially code intensive) and compiling a large project can be an arduous process.

You can use haXe alongside the flash IDE, allowing Flash to do what its best at (design, generation and arrangement of vector assets and animations), and then hook theses assets in with your haXe code to allow for lightning fast code compilation.

• Shorter compile times
• Target flash 8-10 with the same language
• Integrate with assets created from the Flash IDE

haXe vs Flex

The Flex compiler is a command-line compiler like haXe. haXe provides many of the same features as a pure AS3 application compiled with the Flex Compiler. The haXe compiler allows many more optimizations such as inlining, generics, and alchemy opcodes, which allow for faster applications. The haXe compiler is also faster to compile.

Links

Why use haXe?
Download haXe
Learn haXe
Getting started with Flash
Flash Tutorials