Who's Using AS3?

[Shotsy247]

So it's been a little while since I was using Flash and ActionScript full time. When I last left off AS2 was the latest release and Flex was just cropping up out there.

My question here is, what type of people are now using AS3? Are they primarily Web Application developers or is it now a must for someone working on Websites and interactions? How is the adoption rate of AS3 going? Are people lovin' it or hating it?

Thanks for the input.

_t

[PAlexC]

I don't think I've seen a job posting yet requiring AS3, it's a "nice to have". From tinkering with it, my impression is that it's not a total replacement for AS2, it only comes into play when you're dealing with an application that's complex, crunches a lot of data, or is trying to be complete data-driven. The performance gains are pretty amazing from what I've seen.

You should spend effort to learn it, but I think it's overkill for a lot of projects.

[FlashLackey]

We've been using AS3 on the majority of our projects for some time now. We always ask if it's ok to use if no spec is given. But, at least half of our clients are asking up front that we use it.

Maybe it just depends on the type of projects.

[jAQUAN]

If you were using AS2 in a true OOP fashion, then AS3 is a welcome step up. AS2 is still relevant but 3 is worth learning. The display list is a joy to work with and the Timer class is pretty cool.

[Shotsy247]

Can anyone suggest a good place to start the learning process, books, tuts, etc?

Thanks.

_t

[gerbick]

Colin Moock's Essential ActionScript 3.0 Book... start there, read it from cover to cover. I kid you not... it's that necessary.

[jAQUAN]

^ As much as I agree with that statement, I'd read the first couple chapters in the As3 cook book first. There's a couple of simple concepts Colin is too smart to simplify.

[FlashLackey]

Yeah. It's a great book. But, the thing that made the 2.0 book so good was just as much about what was left out as much as what was included. I thought the 3.0 [edition] got a little too similar to the other dev language dictionary style already available. But, I guess it's just a practicality considering how much more complex AS is getting in general.

[FlashLackey]

I thought that this book did for 3.0 what Moock did for 2.0 last time around:

Advanced ActionScript 3 with Design Patterns

http://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Actio...pd_sim_b_img_2

[Trugas]

Probably wondering of topic here but I picked up both Colin Moock's book
and a book by Keith Peters 'ActionScript 3.0 Animation: Making things Move' at the same time.
Although Moock's book is accurate and extensive, it's also quite dry and technical.
Peters' book was a joy to read in comparison and is far better if you'd rather dive straight in and hear it all in plain English.

[jAQUAN]

Those a different studies. You'll cover 3d coordinate rotation but not socket server communication.

[Shotsy247]

I picked up the ActionScript CookBook. I liked the idea of example driven learning, however I do not like that it is based in Flex and they have many custom created classes, so to learn AS3 I need to determin what's included with AS3 and what's a class they created.

It's better than trying to figure this stuff out from the Flash help files though . . . what a mess.

So it seems to me that AS3 is dramatically different from previous versions. To that end, which of you that are using AS3 are also creating using AS2? It doesn't seem like it will be an easy switch back and forth.

_t

[atRax]

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/actionscript/

[jAQUAN]

They are different enough to where I had to learn as3 in the background while continuing to develop everything in 2. It's only just recently that I'm producing work in 3.

Working in flash cs3 isn't a whole lot different. You can still just add an actions layer and start coding on frame 1. You just have to use the language correctly addChild() and all.

One thing that isn't underscored enough is that event listeners are the standard way of getting anything done. Dev's trained in OOD are aware of that but most as1-type coders have bad habits of using strict function scopes.