[osflash] What happened to fla files?

[Robert Kavaler]

I am very new to flash and I'm trying to learn how things work so I'm 
downloading various things and checking them out. Well, I started with 
the new flex sdk3 from adobe.  Then I downloaded some examples.  All the 
examples use ".fla" files but none of the tools in the sdk3 use fla 
files. The plugin to eclipse doesn't seem to understand what they are 
and the documentation has only one reference to fla files, saying that 
the compiler will not generate fla files. Yet, EVERT example I see uses 
these fla files and have what seem to be very important information in 
these fla files (information like classes, images, videos, etc). What is 
going on?  I notice on this site too that there are no references to fla 
files also.  My impression is that there is something so propietary 
about these files that merely mentioned that they exist is an 
infringement of some copyright law :-)

How can I look at (unarchive) an fla file?  How can I create one?  Why 
would I create one - every else is and does and seems to use them to 
pass information?