is AS3 actaully worth the effort?

[MyFriendIsATaco]

canstein recommended some excellent resources.

if you really want to learn OOP, Essential Actionscript 2.0 is for you. It is a must read, in my opinion, for any flash developer wanting to dig into OOP.

Essential Actionscript 3.0 didn't seem to teach as much OOP. It was more taught as a necessity because that is how AS3 is set up. EAS2 teaches concepts of OOP and how it's better to use OOP in transition from procedural programming.

[cancerinform]

If you want to see large projects in AS2 and the same projects transitioned to AS3, after reading Essential Actionscript 2.0 ...

...click on the footer.

[illustratedlife]

How to learn OOP for AS3 with no prior experience:

Read the first couple chapters of this:
http://www.friendsofed.com/book.html?isbn=1590597915


It's $20 to download. Definitely worth the headaches it will save making your transition.

[MyFriendIsATaco]

Yeah, I really wouldn't suggest the Actionscript 3.0 Animation book for a beginner to OOP. It does briefly mention some things at the beginning, but it is FAR from a "let's teach a beginner OOP" book. It does not mention anything at all about different design patterns, or things like that.

That book is good for someone wanting to get into physics stuff and writing their own version of Papervision.

[illustratedlife]

Fair enough. All I can say is it worked for me (although I only read a chapter or two at Borders one day). It explained the OOP methodology in a way that made sense.

[mycaptainkite]

I have the Friends of Ed Flash CS3 for Designers... but it doesn't go much into Actionscript..

[captainandy14]

the thing is that if we wanted to write codes in oop we might have stuck to java. The only reason I left java and hated it was because of all the oop and private and public classes and importing and all that crap . So you want to bounce a ball tween it...you want to bounce a ball dynamically..code it...flash was much better and simpler under macromedia , adobe just f**** it . The only good thing i find adobe has done to flash is inclusion of importing PSD files...thats it.

So now basically we mediocre coders who loved designing need to get our oop books out again..the very reason i left java and c++!complete bull**** IMHO

[neznein9]

I took a year off between AS1 and AS2 and I remember being incredibly frustrated when I came back because I couldnt figure out how to make a simple button to call a url.

The difference from AS2 to 3 is another jump where the entire language was gutted and the whole thing feels really alien - but if you take a few minutes to flip through the livedocs (make a bookmark to your local help files for this! - it's the single best thing I've done to learn AS3 and I call it up daily) you'll start to see some new patterns emerge that make coding in 3 a lot simpler. For example, everything you want to create now uses the same interface. In 2 you have to use different methods to make any new objects (_root.createEmptyMovieClip, MC.createTextField, _root.attachVideo) but in AS3, absolutely everything uses the same syntax (new MovieClip(), new TextField(), new Video()). That means that everything can also use the same add and remove code (addChild(mc), addChild(tf), addChild(vid)), and they can all use the same blend modes and filters. Now I only need to remember one set of instructions and I can manipulate any visual element - that's all thanks to OOP. Instead of being disparate classes that were all hacked in at different times in different ways (I'm looking at you video!), everything visual in AS3 is a subclass of DisplayObject, so they share one common interface and they add anything unique on top.

The hard reality of it is that it's different so it will take a time investment to relearn. However, I guarantee you there will be less and less help for AS2 as time goes on and the rest of the community transitions. Additionally AS3 tends to run 2-10 times faster and it's only going to get better in Player 10 and beyond. You can hem and haw about the syntax of the language but the reality of it is that 3 is more powerful and you're doing a disservice to your clients by using the older tech. Think of it as the same step between Pagemaker and InDesign - you can hold out if you want but you're only making yourself a less desireable Flash dev.

[captainandy14]

so basically what you are trying to tell me and sell everyone is that it had nothing to do with the fact that adobe wanted to bring in all the oop loving nerds to start using flash which i know for a fact that they did not and kept wooting for java instead? And at the same time alienate the people who worked on flash from flash 2-3 whatever and learned it from ground up and fought for its greatness just to realise that one fine day it has pretty much changed into what we didnt like in the first place!

[captainandy14]

just to give an example if you see my joined date its even older than yours..i never found a reason to post much but i did go around reading what people wrote..the only few times I have posted to help some fellow flasher if I knew of some solution. I loved flash and loved AS , now what I hate most is the fact this oop is being shoved down our throats wether we like it or not ...you might argue that we can still publish our files in AS2 but you yourself said that few months from now who would want a coding language which the company itself has disbanded. For all its greatness of AS3 flash was never concieved as a programming language , java and c++ and VB are there for it, incase you people who have not worked on flash versions before 7 dont remember it was basically made for graphic designers who wanted to do more than just insert GIFS for animations. Now its turned into a complete programming language , it might be absolutely stupendous at this point specially for most of your code freaks ..but we coding minows (who have even written games in AS1 and AS2 ) were happy the way flash was.

[rdoyle720]

I can certainly understand the frustration, Flash started out as more of an animation tool and in the last few releases Macromedia and Adobe seemed to cater more toward programmers (the people building the software are in fact programmers, after all).

I can also understand the need to vent. AS3 is more complex than AS2 or AS1, and sometimes appears needlessly complex.

That being said, there's quite a bit about AS3 that you can do exactly the same as before. You still have stop() and gotoAndPlay(), you still have functions and variables and can do things in a very non-OOP way, if you choose.

There are quite a few things you could do to address your complaints. One would be to send feedback to Adobe with your specific beefs (not just that you don't like OOP, but specifically why). Look for tools that simplify Flash development or tools that create Flash-like experiences with simpler code.

Or, just take up AS3 at your own pace (there's no rush) and ask questions in forums like these when you get stuck.

[neznein9]

If you wan't to rant about old-school, please do it correctly. Flash (or Future Splash Animator) was an upstart Hypercard killer, nothing more. They got bought out by Macromedia and upgraded to AS1, and later AS2 (the story parallels Adobe's acquisition nicely).

The jump from AS2 to AS3 is smack dab in the middle of the product's life cycle so being attached to one side of the divide or the other is as idiotic as worshipping AS1. Either commit to learning and making yourself a better developer, or get out of the kitchen and type the word 'designer' at the top of your resume. There's a reason that mature languages gravitate toward OOP - it gives developers more power for less output.

That said, Rdoyle is right - learn at your own pace, ask questions and code in the way that's most comfortable for you. And remember that this forum is filled with people who's livelihood is what you're out here railing on - if you don't want to be here go hang out with Nielson.

[inquizard]

i got that book which illustratedlife mentioned, Foundation Actionscript 3.0 Animation, and it's the main reason i've spent so much time trying to learn as3 recently. I've gone from designing sites with lots of imported images and movieclips etc in the library, to creating virtually everything with code. Not long ago i finished my first functioning site with nothing in the library at all ( i consider myself lucky in this respect as i didnt know any really as1 or as2, so came to as3 fresh).

With what's been mentioned, i think learning a lot more about OOP would be right for me, so is there anything whih people would recommend?

[5TonsOfFlax]

I'd recommend reading any of the various versions of "Design Patterns in..." books. Specifically, Design Patterns in Java will be a lot like AS3, syntactically.

[inquizard]

my brother gave me "Advanced ActionScript 3 with Design Patterns" as a present: is this the same range?

[5TonsOfFlax]

Never seen it. If it covers patterns like those described in the article below, it's probably useful:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_...puter_science)

Edit: fixed link. board's url parser doesn't like parentheses

[inquizard]

thanks - i'll have a read : there's a ")" missing off the end of your link by the way

[691175002]

I can't outright suggest any OOP books but I would recommend a trip to the library to pick up everything related to OOP.
Books that I have read/own and would recommend are:
Head first design patterns
The object oriented thought process
Applying UML and patterns
Pattern catalog type stuff
While almost all books are useful to some degree, it can be hard to justify shelling out 50-90$ for a book that may get 1-2 read throughs or that may be above/below your level. It is far better to skim dozens of books from a library and read the ones that fit you best. Your local public library may even have an online searchable database when you can toss in reservations.

[captainandy14]

If you wan't to rant about old-school, please do it correctly. Flash (or Future Splash Animator) was an upstart Hypercard killer, nothing more. They got bought out by Macromedia and upgraded to AS1, and later AS2 (the story parallels Adobe's acquisition nicely).

The jump from AS2 to AS3 is smack dab in the middle of the product's life cycle so being attached to one side of the divide or the other is as idiotic as worshipping AS1. Either commit to learning and making yourself a better developer, or get out of the kitchen and type the word 'designer' at the top of your resume. There's a reason that mature languages gravitate toward OOP - it gives developers more power for less output.

That said, Rdoyle is right - learn at your own pace, ask questions and code in the way that's most comfortable for you. And remember that this forum is filled with people who's livelihood is what you're out here railing on - if you don't want to be here go hang out with Nielson.

ya you are right about that, after all its adobe's wish what they do with it. Now people like us can either decide to turn into coder junkies or move out. I guess ill move back to being a php coder atleast it wont change into something completely new . As for your hard defence of AS3 and me being "idiotic" changing as2 into as3 was as idiotic if photoshop was changed into having AS1. Lets see how many people cry about that if that really happens. Flash has now changed into something I cant recognise with affection anymore where as over the past so many years I have actually forced my clients to use flash citing 100s of its advantages. I would have happily wore "Flash is Great" T shirt. Now I feel like i have been completely abandoned by it.

That being said flash wont really miss "full designers half coders" like us because they have people like you to defend its new avataar. Might as well find a new kitchen and cook new dishes as this was my livelihood as well

[captainandy14]

I do want to thank everyone at flashkit though for a great time I remember with great fondness like the time when flashtrac was introduced and I loved playing with those and just doing nothing and listening to thousands of free loops. If I am to exit this field I might as well remember it with good happy memories!

And thanks to neznein9 for clearing my mind as I was shuffling between thinking wether I should download ebooks of AS3 or abandon flash as it has abandoned few of us unwanted half coders. Now I know in which direction flash has gone and I dont feel like following that path.