About ActionScript

1
About ActionScript

• Only the wisest and stupidest of men never
  change. Confucius
• We cannot become what we need to be by remaining
  what we are. Max Depree
• Multiple versions of ActionScript can lead to
  user confusion
• Older books and tutorials may still be useful

2
Summary of Differences

• Flash 5 and the new Flash MX 2004 are very
  different
• MX 2004s ActionScript 2.0 is a standard form of
  JavaScript (actually ECMAscript)
• Built-in components are different
• Testing and debugging capabilities improved
• Much easier to support mobile platforms with MX
  2004

3
Why the interest in scripting?

• Enables us to import and export information
• Possible to create interactive, smart forms
• And to build network communications programs e.g.
  instant messaging apps
• We can personalise the users experience
• And control movie clips and their properties more
  tightly

4
Why the interest in scripting?

• Script-based animation of elements in your movie,
  without using the timeline see tutorial
• Build dynamic projects that vary according to
  external information, e.g. weather data or the
  day of the week
• Dynamically control sound volume and stereo
  panning
• Monitor user interaction, mouse and keyboard

5
ActionScript

• ActionScript 1.0
• Good for simple interactivity
• Basic glue coding
• Plenty of code available (often quite rough)
• Limited capabilities leads to some kludge coding
• Non-standard language, related to JavaScript
• Can be very slow in Flash 5
• Even sloppy code runs

6
ActionScript

• ActionScript 2.0
• A proper object oriented programming language!
• Good for more complex code
• Deeper control of Flash capabilities
• More flexible programming environment
• Superior debugging capabilities
• Cleaner coding, more readable
• Stricter syntax and error checking

7
Good News

• You can still program using ActionScript 1.0 in
  Flash MX 2004
• Performance of AS1 is good in MX 2004
• ActionScript 2.0 code strongly resembles Java
• So ActionScript 2.0 knowledge can easily be
  re-used in the industrial-strength,
  cross-platform world of Java

8
More Good News

• AS2.0 code runs about five times faster than
  original Flash 5 AS1.0 code!
• This opens up possibilities that were closed
  before, like interactive games with complex
  processing (e.g. game AI)

9
Tricks and Traps

• AS2.0 is case sensitive nCounter ! ncounter !
  NCounter
• Note that old code may fail stopAllSounds() //
  works! stopallsounds() // fails!
• AS2.0 has strict data typing var nCounterNumber
  36Variable nCounter, of type Number, set to
  36
• Strict data typing improves run-time performance

10
References

• ActionScript 2.0 A Real Programming
  Languagehttp//www.peachpit.com/articles/article.
  asp?p102204
• Introducing ActionScripthttp//www.macromedia.com
  /devnet/mx/flash/articles/astfts_excerpt/astfts_le
  sson1.pdf
• Kirupa ActionScript 2.0 OOPhttp//www.kirupa.com/
  developer/oop2/AS2OOPindex.htm