Some basic Actionscript 3

[MattFr]

Hey,

I made this quick FlashDevelop project for someone learning Actionscript 3. Quite a lot of it is commented and it teaches some basics, like OOP structure, display list, basic syntax.

Sorry if any of my comments aren't technically correct, this is for noobs :)

You need FlashDevelop and Flex SDK (google can help you with this, trust me) to check out this Project and don't ask me for the .fla - I hate Adobe Flash.

http://www.mattfroggett.com/Particles.zip

Download from the above link. As I say, it's basic, doesn't do much, but it teaches. Ask if you need help.

Matt

[Apolva]

dumb question here - I currently use Flash and code in AS2. Is there much advantage in using AS3/Flex?

[MattFr]

The choice between the Adobe Flash IDE and FlashDevelop with Flex SDK is personal preference I think. The Adobe Flash IDE costs (yes, you probably got it another way, but whatever) and FlashDevelop with the Flex SDK is free and open source. Personally, the concept of having a timeline and stage seems really weird to me - I display everything and progress with addChild, removeChild (display list) and events. If you like the stage and timeline, stick to the Flash IDE, if like me you do everything with code, FlashDevelop is a better option.

For me starting from scratch, AS3 was the only option as it is the newer and more up to date language. However, I am not really in the position to give advice on if the swap from AS2 to AS3 is worth it. I can, however, suggest some advantages of AS3 and you could make your own mind up.


AS3 is simply a lot better, the syntax is better, there are more standards and it is fussy. Fussy may be seen as a negative aspect of the language, but once it is learnt, your code makes more sense and it becomes easier to code.
AS3 forces you to code object orientated. For me this was a major advantage as I was so used to working with OOP in PHP, doing absolutely everything with classes. Although the OOP concept is difficult to get your head around at first, and takes longer to write, the code is much more efficient and stronger than non-OOP code.
AS3 is faster by design than AS2.


Yeah, that's some basic points, but I am sure there is plenty more reading on Google if you are interested. As I say, if you have done "proper" coding before, not just messing around with bits of code to make crappy users systems, but real coding like objects, abstraction, etc etc, you will love AS3.

Sorry that was a bit of an essay, but feel free to ask if you want anymore advice :)

[Apolva]

Thanks for the info

I'm just looking into the whole Flex business (finding an IDE for Mac). I was finding the timeline concept rather pointless anyway, I guess it's more of an animation thing.

There I was thinking Flash was the only way ^^,

[MattFr]

I use Actionscript for animation, haha. I guess if you just want to do a frame by frame stop motion thing though, a timeline would make sense. I think FlashDevelop was being ported to mono, but I don't think it ever got completed. Maybe use some virtualization?