Are you still using trace() in Flex 2.0 ?

If you're still using flash trace() in your Flex 2.0 applications you should have a look at the new ILogger interface in Flex 2.0. I'm using ILogger for my own components and it's great. It's not hard to learn how to use it, especially if you have any experience of logging with .NET's System.Diagnostics.TraceListener (or with Java's log4j).

Unfortunately, with the exception of the Flex v2.0 Data Services components, I've found that the Flash v9.0 framework runtime itself and the Flex v2.0 components don't log what they're doing and don't use the ILogger interface.

Debugging complex applications with lots of dynamically created nested MXML components would be a lot easier if the framework runtime did an :ILogger.debug("instantiating component") when components were newed, and did an :ILogger.debug("dispatching preinitialize/initialize/creationComplete event") when "lifecycle" events are dispatched on components and logged when the lifecycle methods (createChildren(), commitProperties(), measure(), layoutChrome() and updateDisplayList()) are called by the framework run-time.

Additionally debugging complex data binding would be a lot easier if the mx:Binding component in particular logged each time it was triggered.

Figuring out the sequence of things is proving to be one of the hardest challenges of developing big applications in Flex 2.0.