Actionscript 1 user feels left behind...

[senocular]

of course it does, but knowing and keeping up with the latest and greatest is going to provide you with the most opportunity there.

[Chris_Seahorn]

This threads reminded me of a recent user who was struggling to incorporate the AS3 ability to read sound spectrum data while attempting to not migrate their code across the board up to 3. The bottom line is like all things that progress and mature...you either stay current or stay rooted in the past. While I'm not a fan of forcing any persons opinion as to what Actionscript version fits their needs best, I can say that there are simply some features that I can't do without. Personally what drove me to migrate was E4X (among other things) and , just like I assumed, once I did it simplifies my coding in leaps and bounds. Just the sheer lines of code it saves me and the simplicity to use make it a win win for my type of coding.

If you can get away with staying rooted to AS1/AS2...well...you should. If you want to stay current and fully exploit the benefits of the new Flashplayer and scripting however, you should at least take a few minutes a day to start the trek towards the future. Once you get passed the frustration and get out of old coding habits...you just might find it makes your life easier in the long run. I fought it tooth and nail dragging my feet the entire way and looking back now...I'm glad I decided to migrate

[cancerinform]

Back to reality!

If you use Flash as a hobby, move directly to AS3, don't care about the past. If you use Flash to make your living and you are not familiar with AS2 and OOP practices and come from AS1 lift your pants and learn it. Businesses are now starting to upgrade to AS2 and like to have modular Actionscript. That means in 2-3 years they will want to upgrade to AS3 and if you are not familiar with AS2 and OOP it will be a big problem.

Also I noticed while creating exercises for AS2 (applications with many class files) and then creating the same exercises for AS3 one can really reuse a lot of code, which saves time. Some of the classes had a lot of calculations about the number and placing them within the movie with button clicks. When I prepared the AS3 exercises I nearly forgot all those calculations. No problem, because I could reuse most of the code.

[fkshane]

I started by using ActionScript 2 several years ago. It was quite confusing because so many resources and examples were written in ActionScript 1 and AS 1 had some pretty kludgy ways of declaring objects and attaching methods to them. People were starting to use AS 2 but they were the pioneers.

I would say that if you were able to handle AS 1 then try out AS 2 first, since AS 2 changed the way objects are used and introduced strict typing of variables.

Since I have the differences between 1 and 2 sorted out mostly, I've been able to slowly look at AS 3. The good news is you can accomplish quite a bit with AS 2 anyway and can wait to see which particular features of AS 3 you really need.

[asmallmonkeyman]

There is such a thing as usability. Code at the best of times doesnt adhere to this a great deal. AS1 and AS2 had some good usability, perhaps this is now thrown out of the window for AS3.

Its all very well having complex new features, but if its taking 5 hours longer to do everything then its not very usable.

[asmallmonkeyman]

I would also point out right now adobe has flash totally cornered. I dont know why there isnt another vector based program that competes with it because the further flash goes into deep programming the more it will lose really. If for instance the AS code gets more and more complex it will become unusable to the average user and last time I looked flash was popular because it was usable to the average user. C++ has existed for years but that is not exactly mainstream for the average user and you sure as hell dont get any good designers who can do both properly. Most people are designers with some code knowledge, or coders. Flash enables a bit of both, but perhaps eventually businesses will need to employ flash only coders, although Im sure they do already, but you cant expect picasso to do C++ as well.

[Cimmerian]

Thats what happen when you put nerds to do the marketing job

[senocular]

Remember too that AS3 is not a requirement. If you want simplicity, you can use AS2 or AS1 and your SWF will still run fine in the most up to date players. The advantage of AS3 is its maturity as a programming language. For non-programmers, that might not be so great since simpler is usually better, but simple can only do so much for so long. At least the option still exists to stick with the easier stuff.

[raredesign]

[QUOTE=itsallgood]
It looks like AS3 is going to be a pain in the arse -- i hate declaring varibles. Being someone who works in AS1, PHP, and VB6, i've never needed too.
QUOTE]

Tisk, tisk. You mean you never used option explicit? ;-)

[raredesign]

I would also point out right now adobe has flash totally cornered. I dont know why there isnt another vector based program that competes with it because the further flash goes into deep programming the more it will lose really. If for instance the AS code gets more and more complex it will become unusable to the average user and last time I looked flash was popular because it was usable to the average user. C++ has existed for years but that is not exactly mainstream for the average user and you sure as hell dont get any good designers who can do both properly. Most people are designers with some code knowledge, or coders. Flash enables a bit of both, but perhaps eventually businesses will need to employ flash only coders, although Im sure they do already, but you cant expect picasso to do C++ as well.

but look at how far capability has gone. I am speaking for myself, but I am not ONLY interested in making a symbol move from point A to point B anymore, or stressing the ability of AS1 with collision detection and thinking I am bad news.
For me personally, this OO step has opened the world up. Now you can make things perfectly in runtime that you previously would have spent extreme amounts of time and data size creating in design time.

EDIT:
by the way, aside from built in functions, typically object oriented languages are more expandable and compatible with other languages/options. There are exceptions, but this could allow for other programs to start tying in with Flash a lot easier, as well as making for better dynamic practices for webdevelopment or CMS like joomla. :-)

[Cimmerian]

I am speaking for myself,

Not for the masses who made flash what it is.
I agree 100% with asmallmonkeyman, the strategy Adobe is taking is totally out of focus.Normal persons made flash be popular as it is today, not heavy coders, and now Adobe's nerds are moving flash away from the users who made flash what it is.Lets see how popular AS3 is going to be, till now i saw many time on many foruns people complaining about the loss of productivity on it, time will tell if the masses will like it

[Chaos_Blader]

There is no need to upgrade unless you are planning to work on a highly advanced project. As3 is more power and flexibility in Actionscript. If your making a movie and all you need is a button that does gotoAndPlay, use As2.

[MikeMD]

If it does take you much longer to do something with AS3 and there are no real benefits performance wise, just forget about it.

The end result is what matters, how clean your code is is totally irrelevant unless you have to share files with others. And a lot of times "bad" coding practices turn out to be better than "good" coding practices. Things get done faster and your flash app or game performs better. Seen it many times.

[Blitzzzz]

I have to be honest. I can't stand the direction flash is moving. I hate all these lame components. Drop one on the stage and your file size goes out the window..They keep tring to make it eazy for the designer.. we're moving backwords. I'd prefer they don't waste there time on that crap and focus more on the code it self, add functionality, add better intergration with server side scripts, database conectivity etc. Make it more like a client - let server side script add all the actionscript. focus on security etc.. Now adobe has a hold of it.. We're in for a years of Mac intergratoin. lets add plug ins for Quick Time and I movie..-and not improving flash. The drawing tools will be great - but these are graphics people.. expect a "slow down" of Flash development.

[Blitzzzz]

They need to quit dramatically change the basic structure of the code. You get no were. Ok you learn AS3 but in 09 it’s thrown out the window for AS4 that is completely different again – I don’t understand what they are trying to accomplish. THEY ARE TRYING to make it easier - trust me. I can see it. The problem is if you keep changing the building blocks we all get were? Were? Back to the basics, how do I make a button. Come on now. I do not want to learn how to re-make a button in flash in the year 09. And drag and drop connectors that create all kinds of extra BS. None of the stuff works in the real world anyway. All of those connectors or components are Unless the source of the project was created specifically for flash. (and most of the time – it’s just not like that) You have to work with XML files that will not work with these stupid connectors.. Trust me. There trying to code around these components. When they are useless in the first place. I don’t buy it. I think it would be very smart to just skip AS3 and wait for 4.. stick with 1 & 2 for now. 9/10 times your going to have to parse this stuff by hand..Trust Me! And now we have about 4 versions of actionscript all mixed up.. and for what?

[Blitzzzz]

I'll let all you guys code the AS3 write your tutorials and post sniplets/ report all the bugs, and by the time you get about 60 people to download the flash player 9 to see your cool AS3 projects (that could have been done in AS2 anyway) AS4 will be out. In about a year and a half AS4 will be release and "most of the bugs worked out - and finaly a good chunck with flash player 9.. all the while i progeress in AS1 and AS2 for now - and we'll all be at the same place in 09 learning to make a button (you with AS4 - and no docs and no flash 11 player audience, and me in AS3 with a ton of Docs - that you made for me). Have at it! and thank you!

[Blitzzzz]

you can say that's a bad attitude or whatever - but i've been learning the latest actionscript every year - and i'm getting tired of it. - will i jump over probably.. (just venting a bit)

[MyFriendIsATaco]

Hey Blitzzzz, you might want to learn some facts before you go on ranting like that. AS3 has MANY benefits over AS2, but I'm not going to go into them. The biggest though is performance. Do a little research. Components should not be a reason to switch to AS3. I can't tell you the last time I've used one of theirs.

Also, take a look at this: http://www.adobe.com/products/player...netration.html

Flash Player 9 already has 84% penetration rate in the US and Canada. I'd say that's safe to be using AS3 in real world projects.

It all comes down to, if you don't like it, don't use it. With CS3, you can still use AS1 or AS2 if you would like. Hell, you can still publish for Flash Player 1 if you really wanted to.

[cancerinform]

I said it a couple of times. Businesses are now upgrading to AS2. For most of the part that is enough.
Another problem is that you need not only Flash now but Flex 2 as well for certain server-side scripting and for some media movies. Then there is the problem that one can't load AS2 movies with components so easily in AS3 movies with frames because of compatibility problems. That means either do everything new or don't.

It will take a long time until AS3 will have its real breakthrough. With problems in IE and player distribution in general people will again hesitate. I know people who gave up Flash completely and they never went further than MX because some of their clients did not have a newer player.

Adobe needs to slow down. They are now overflooding the market with new products and only a few may be able to catch up here and there but to catch up everywhere, either you need to be retired or you need to be genius.

[Blitzzzz]

point taken! taco.



And i agree they need to 'slow down". nothing would have been wrong with AS2.1 ?