difficulty of action script?

[ne0the0ne]

How difficult is it to learn actionscript if you already have experience in other languages such as Java? Is there much difference or is it just a case a learning syntax? Im considering using flash for prototyping but if actionscript would take a long time to learn, it might not be efficient to do so.
Thanks

[myheadhurtsalot]

I dont think it's too bad, i dont really have much experience, and i'm making do, as far as i can, and ask when i get stumped.

[Osteel]

ne0the0ne,

I started learning flash in school for about a semester and we hardly did any actionscripting. All the actionscipting I've learned was by coming on to forums and learning to make things such as simple games.

Actionscripting isnt too hard to learn the basics and even some advanced stuff. Eventually you get used to it that learning new techniques become simple since you already know alot of the syntax.

Anyways, if you new to flash I suggest learning about things such as buttons and movieclips and the different basic coding you can do with those since those are the most used objects

Have fun

[EQFlash]

How difficult is it to learn actionscript if you already have experience in other languages such as Java? Is there much difference or is it just a case a learning syntax? Im considering using flash for prototyping but if actionscript would take a long time to learn, it might not be efficient to do so.
Thanks

even though actionscript is different from javascript. they have their similarities. I think actionscript is much easier though. a lot of it is self explanatory.
i.e. if you want a button to open a link. the code would be

on(release){
getURL("http://www.flashkit.com");
}
the code is pretty simple to understand, i think, in comparison to javascript performing the same function. Maybe it's just me though

[Osteel]

I did a course of java back in grade 12 highschool last year and when I started doing actionscripting on my own time I started noticing similarities with the whole functions and Object Oriented Programming.

So yea, I think it helped me alot in learning action scripting. My twin brother does Flash as well, but he's more on the artsy side of it. He didnt take any programming while at highschool and has trouble with some of the actionscripting that I find easy , so knowing some programming should help

[ne0the0ne]

Thanks for the replies. I decided to go ahead and start learning actionscript so expect (probably stupid) questions from me in the near future

edit: Whats the difference between AS1 and AS2? I've got flash mx so I think Ive got AS2.

[blazes816]

You have AS1, but there isnt much of a difference.

[ne0the0ne]

Ah well, as long as I can get something working .

[DaVulf]

The only main difference with AS2 is it 'simplifies' some things and adds more cross-coding support (php, xml etc.).

In regards to the original query, I originally started learning AS, and then took a course on Java programming. Suffice it to say that AS is far easier as for one, it doesn't require a semicolon at the end of each line...

[ne0the0ne]

I dont know if thats a good thing or not. Im so used to adding a semi-colon I think Im going to keep adding them, and then once I get used to not adding them, but then go back to java.............