How can I speed up MXMLC compiles? - apache-flex

Question

I am using ant to build my web application. I have a target in my ant script which takes approximately 8 minutes to compile. Since mxmlc compiles everything from scratch and loads up the JVM each time, it is taking a lot of time. Is there a way to optimize this task?
I am using Flex SDK 3.0. Here is my ant target:
<target name="compile.organic.flash" depends="setup">
<property name="WelcomeBack.swf" value="${www.dir}/swf/as3/apps/welcome/WelcomeBack.swf" />
<mxmlc file="${AS3.classpath}/com/organic/app/fthb/welcome/src/WelcomeBack.as"
output="${WelcomeBack.swf}"
incremental="${mxmlc.inc}"
default-frame-rate="30"
accessible="true"
default-background-color="${swf.backgrond.color}"
allow-source-path-overlap="true"
compiler.strict="true">
<default-size width="940" height="528" />
<source-path path-element="${Welcome.path}"/>
<source-path path-element="${AS3.classpath}"/>
</mxmlc>
<property name="Welcome.swf" value="${www.dir}/swf/as3/apps/welcome/Welcome.swf" />
<mxmlc file="${AS3.classpath}/com/organic/app/fthb/welcome/src/Welcome.as"
output="${Welcome.swf}"
incremental="${mxmlc.inc}"
default-frame-rate="30"
accessible="true"
default-background-color="${swf.backgrond.color}"
allow-source-path-overlap="true"
compiler.strict="true">
<default-size width="940" height="528" />
<source-path path-element="${Welcome.path}"/>
<source-path path-element="${AS3.classpath}"/>
<compiler.include-libraries dir="${AS3.component}/" >
</compiler.include-libraries>
</mxmlc>
<property name="App.swf" value="${www.dir}/swf/as3/apps/App-${svnVersion}.swf" />
<mxmlc file="${AS3.classpath}/com/organic/app/fthb/App.as"
output="${App.swf}"
incremental="${mxmlc.inc}"
default-frame-rate="30"
default-background-color="${swf.backgrond.color}"
compiler.strict="true">
<default-size width="300" height="300" />
<source-path path-element="${AS3.classpath}"/>
<compiler.include-libraries dir="${AS3.component}/" >
</compiler.include-libraries>
</mxmlc>
<property name="LSOApp.swf" value="${www.dir}/swf/as3/apps/LSOApp-${svnVersion}.swf" />
<mxmlc file="${AS3.classpath}/com/organic/boa/fthb/LSOApp.as"
output="${LSOApp.swf}"
incremental="${mxmlc.inc}"
default-frame-rate="30"
default-background-color="${swf.backgrond.color}"
compiler.strict="true">
<default-size width="300" height="300" />
<source-path path-element="${AS3.classpath}"/>
<compiler.include-libraries dir="${AS3.component}/" >
</compiler.include-libraries>
</mxmlc>
<property name="CheckRates.swf" value="${www.dir}/swf/as3/apps/CheckRates-${svnVersion}.swf" />
<mxmlc file="${CheckRates.path}/CheckRates.as"
output="${CheckRates.swf}"
incremental="${mxmlc.inc}"
default-frame-rate="40"
accessible="true"
default-background-color="${swf.backgrond.color}"
compiler.strict="true" compiler.allow-source-path-overlap="true" >
<default-size width="940" height="528" />
<compiler.source-path path-element="${AS3.classpath}"/>
<compiler.source-path path-element="${CheckRates.path}"/>
<!-- <source-path path-element="${AS3.classpath}"/> -->
<compiler.include-libraries dir="${AS3.classpath}">
<include name="fl/fl.swc" />
</compiler.include-libraries>
</mxmlc>
<copy file="${AS3.classpath}/com/organic/app/fthb/checkRates/js/config/check_rates_config.js" tofile="${www.dir}/swf/as3/apps/config/check_rates_config.js"/>
<property name="PointsCalculator.swf" value="${www.dir}/swf/as3/apps/PointsCalculator-${svnVersion}.swf" />
<property name="flash.apps.build.dir" value="${www.dir}/swf/as3/apps" />
<compile-flash basename="PointsCalculator" srcdir="${flash.apps.src.dir}/pointsCalculator">
</compile-flash>
<copy todir="${flash.apps.build.dir}/config">
<fileset dir="${flash.apps.src.dir}/pointsCalculator/config" includes="*.js"/>
</copy>
<copy todir="${build.dir}/www/css">
<fileset dir="${flash.apps.src.dir}/pointsCalculator/css" includes="*.css"/>
</copy>
<copy todir="${build.dir}/www/swf/as3/apps/welcome/assets/swfs">
<fileset dir="${flash.apps.src.dir}/welcome/assets/swfs" includes="*.swf"/>
</copy>
<copy file="${videoplayer.dir}/videoplayer.swf" tofile="${www.dir}/swf/as3/apps/videoplayer.swf" />
</target>

Answer 1

Use fcsh. From the first paragraph of that link
The fcsh (Flex Compiler Shell) utility provides a shell environment
that you use to compile Flex applications, modules, and component
libraries. It works very similarly to the mxmlc and compc command line
compilers, but it compiles faster than the mxmlc and compc
command-line compilers. One reason is that by keeping everything in
memory, fcsh eliminates the overhead of launching the JVM and loading
the compiler classes. Another reason is that compilation results (for
example, type information) can be kept in memory for subsequent
compilations.

Answer 2

We found that what was slowing down the compiler was mostly linking assets. We made a library project swf that is just used for assets (images, swfs, etc.) except fonts, and it works a treat.
We have a massive project building under 2 mins from maven.