What have you found in AS3?

Found this in the docs:

"The new Sprite class is a lightweight building block, similar to MovieClip but more appropriate as a base class for UI components. The new Shape class represents raw vector shapes. These classes can be instantiated naturally with the new operator and can be dynamically re-parented at any time."

"There is no longer any need to assign depth numbers to display list objects. Depth management is now automatic and built into the Flash Player. New methods are provided for specifying and managing the z-order of objects."

Built-in Base64 encoder: "public class Base64Encoder". No documentation on this one.

If you have built experiments with AS3, please post them.
Also, would be nice to see some kind of speed tests. Is player8.5 really 10xfaster?

Is FP8.5 suposed to be 10x faster, can i run normal SWF's created in flash AS2 in FP8.5 or only stuff created with AS3 with flex or what ever its called

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Originally Posted by Gloo pot

Is FP8.5 suposed to be 10x faster, can i run normal SWF's created in flash AS2 in FP8.5 or only stuff created with AS3 with flex or what ever its called

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I believe player 8.5 will play your Flash8 AS2 swf files, but it wont play those any faster then player 8.0. Player has 2 separate built-in "virtual machines": 1 for AS3 8.5 content and other for older swf.

Oh, what a shame. But i guess that if the new one is suposed to be faster, that can only mean its better right?

cant wait sound to see how fast it will run some 3d stuff...

This link describes differences between AS2 and AS3:
http://livedocs.macromedia.com/labs/...migration.html
Notice that AS3 has been completely rewritten and you most likely cant use even single line from your older Flash code.

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Originally Posted by tonypa

"There is no longer any need to assign depth numbers to display list objects. Depth management is now automatic and built into the Flash Player. New methods are provided for specifying and managing the z-order of objects."

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No more getNextHeighestDepth() ? or attachMovie(linkage,name, DEPTH)? Damn. That would make attaching and creating movie clips a step easier! Nice find tonypa.

For example mouse in AS3:

Events:

MouseEventType.CLICK;
MouseEventType.DOUBLE_CLICK;
MouseEventType.MOUSE_DOWN;
MouseEventType.MOUSE_MOVE;
MouseEventType.MOUSE_OUT;
MouseEventType.MOUSE_OVER;
MouseEventType.MOUSE_UP;
MouseEventType.MOUSE_WHEEL;

Properties:

buttonDown: Indicates whether the left mouse button is depressed(true) or not(false).
ctrlKey: Indicates whether the Control key is active(true) or inactive(false).
delta: Indicates how many lines should be scrolled for each notch the user scrolls the mouse wheel.
localX: The horizontal coordinate at which the event occurred relative to the containing sprite.
localY: The vertical coordinate at which the event occurred relative to the containing sprite.
relatedObject: A reference to a display list object that is related to the event.
shiftKey: Indicates whether the shift(Shift) key modifier is active(true) or inactive(false).
stageX: The horizontal coordinate at which the event occurred relative to the Display.
stageY: The vertical coordinate at which the event occurred relative to the containing Display.

I found this on the Macromedia site just now. Don't now if this is anything new around here, but I'll just give you guys the link.

Its the AS 3.0 Language Reference

http://livedocs.macromedia.com/labs/...ref/index.html

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Originally Posted by andross_88

No more getNextHeighestDepth() ? or attachMovie(linkage,name, DEPTH)? Damn. That would make attaching and creating movie clips a step easier! Nice find tonypa.

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There is no attachMovie anymore in AS3. Instead you will use addChild method:

public addChild(child:DisplayObject) : DisplayObject

Adds a child DisplayObject instance to this DisplayObjectContainer instance. The child is added to the front (top) of all other children in this DisplayObjectContainer instance. (To add a child to a specific level, use the addChildAt() method.)


Also, there are 2 hittests:

public hitTestObject(obj:DisplayObject) : Boolean
Evaluates the display object to see if it overlaps or intersects with the obj display object.

public hitTestPoint(x:Number, y:Number, shapeFlag:Boolean = false) : Boolean
Evaluates the display object to see if it overlaps or intersects with the point specified by the x and y parameters.

More on the Sprite Class:

"The Sprite class is a basic display list building block: a display list node that can display graphics and can also contain children.
A Sprite object is similar to a movie clip, but does not have a Timeline. Sprite is an appropriate base class for objects that do not require Timelines. For example, Sprite would be a logical base class for user interface (UI) components that typically do not use the Timeline."

"The Sprite class is new in ActionScript 3.0. It provides an alternitive to the functionality of the MovieClip class, which has retained all the functionality of previous ActionScript releases in order to provide backward compatibility."

http://livedocs.macromedia.com/labs/...ref/index.html

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tonypa

There is no attachMovie anymore in AS3. Instead you will use addChild method:

public addChild(child:DisplayObject) : DisplayObject

Adds a child DisplayObject instance to this DisplayObjectContainer instance. The child is added to the front (top) of all other children in this DisplayObjectContainer instance. (To add a child to a specific level, use the addChildAt() method.)

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Are they seriously replacing MovieClip with DisplayObject or is Movie Clip just a sub class of DisplayObject? What's going on here! Don't tell me they have removed all the Movie Clip properties we've come to love (_x, _y).

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Originally Posted by andross_88

Are they seriously replacing MovieClip with DisplayObject or is Movie Clip just a sub class of DisplayObject? What's going on here! Don't tell me they have removed all the Movie Clip properties we've come to love (_x, _y).

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Movie Clip is still there, its subclass of display something. But almost all properties are changed:

_x property is now flash.display.DisplayObject.x
"Moved to DisplayObject class and removed initial underscore from name."

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Originally Posted by tonypa

Depth management is now automatic and built into the Flash Player.

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automatic depth management sounds like a dream to me!

Tonypa - MouseEventType.DOUBLE_CLICK

Get's on knees, raises hands, YEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH BAAAAABBBAAAAAY

is there any reason macromedia don’t let us specify are own right click actions by this i mean say on right click open specific menu or gotoandplay not just like the current customized macromedia one.

k they just re-created a java.

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Originally Posted by Dragonusthei

is there any reason macromedia don’t let us specify are own right click actions by this i mean say on right click open specific menu or gotoandplay not just like the current customized macromedia one.

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Yeah i see your point, almost everyone knows how to disable the options menu. But i still leaves the web cam and link to macromedia, i guess macromedia haven't released a useable rightclick because of these factors. There might not be a demand for it either apart from the gaming community. Some people might not even know it exists.

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Originally Posted by chuckury

k they just re-created a java.

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no, they just created God. Too bad all the movieClip properties are changed. I guess they really changed the movieClip class tonypa? I'll probably just stick with 2.0 anyway, but couldn't one possibly implement the AS 2.0 classes, like movieClips, into 3.0 somehow? I don't think most of us want to type all that stuff just to get an _x or _y. This sprite class seems very interesting though.

:eek: eek.

Hmm. In some ways this is sorta good... I like the fact you only have to bother with z-sorting if you need to, and the sprite thing is interesting...


I only skimmed over this quickly, but if I use AS3, its going to mean a lot of adjustments to my coding style & how I organise everything. Whether this will be for better or worse, I don't know. In a way its just some small things that will get on my nerves - like movieclip properties which have dropped the "_".

These are a few things that interested/annoyed me - mostly from http://livedocs.macromedia.com/labs/...migration.html

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removeMovieClip() Removed. (removeChild() or removeChildAt())
_lockroot Property Removed.
_url Property[read-only] flash.net.URLRequest.url
root : DisplayObject [read-only]
For loaded SWF files, the root of the SWF file that owns this display object. (Note "For loaded SWF files". To access what was _root in a standalone SWF you would use Stage.root)

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How the f*&k am i supposed to keep up. I'm trying to learn php and web server stuff too.

I thought that with as2 they had finally settled on a base. (have they?) and if i learn 3 will they then bring out 4?
What is their roadmap ? man I shoulda just got into java and been done with it.

mojito

hmmm, AS3???
I cant see in in flash 8.

So AS 3.0 is almost looking like another Java language. The new AS inludes an 'int' primitive type, which is supposedly faster for the cpu when using it as a counter for loops and such.

"ActionScript 2.0 had a single numeric type, Number, a double-precision floating point number. One welcome addition to ActionScript 3.0 is the new int type. The int type is a 32-bit signed integer, and lets ActionScript code take advantage of the fast integer math capabilities of the CPU. int is great for loop counters and almost anywhere a decimal point isn’t needed. Another new type is uint, an unsigned 32-bit integer type similar to int. uint is primarily useful for pixel color values and other quantities where int doesn't work well. "

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Originally Posted by FrAnKeH

hmmm, AS3???
I cant see in in flash 8.

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Flash8 wont have AS3, you need to wait for Flash9.

Can we start building Flash applications in MX 2004 and be able to use the new classes provided in AS 3.0 by publishing to Flash Player 8.5?

I remember being able to to the same with Flash Player 8 (I had to modify some file in the Flash system folder) in order to publish to FP 8 in MX 2004

I would like that, means i can get started in AS3 now and i wont have to wait for Flash 9...

How long did AS2 last... it was only implimented in flash 7 and 6 wasnt it?... They better not decide to make AS4 straight after flash 9....

Dam MM, why do they make life so hard!?

They aren't making life any harder, you don't have to learn the new syntax, it is probably just time-saving eventually and a lot faster.

More choices, more possiblities. AS2 was/is around in Flash 7 and 8, that is atleast 2.5 years, and it is not like AS2 won't be useable.

Why should i waste my time, every year, to learn how to do the same thing i could do before?
Just when i was beginning to understand AS2, now Madobedia deprecated some stuff, and un-deprecate the same stuff...and throw away _x and _y??
Do you know what it looks like?Looks like they will change AS FOR EVER, even if the change was just puting in and puting out the same thing again, cos this way you have to buy the new flash.
Thats a reason to move to java.

You won't need to switch straight away. You will still be able to export AS2 stuff from F9. They've made these changes to update the language, and although I expect eventually most people will switch, MM are going to leave an option to write AS2.

Just deal with it people! No ones forcing u to use .x or .y, make your own ._x or ._y for God's sake. At least, you should all be happy the new virtual machine will run 10x faster.

Dont forget that this release of Flex is alpha build. It wont be out for 6 months, including Flash player 8.5. And Flash9 coming probably in 12 months you have quite some time to figure out if you like AS3 and would want to use it when its released.

Its really nice of MM to release so program early, I doubt you would of liked it any better if they just announced this in April next year without any warnings.

so can we assume from this that AS1 is finally on its way out? surely flash 9 wouldnt support 3 versions of AS. ho hum, AS1 suits me just fine for prototyping. better buy some ref books.

I may be completely wrong, but I very much doubt they will cut off AS1 completely. Many users, including me, are just too much non-programmers ever to understand the beauty of AS3 and too many Flash projects are made with earlier versions of Flash.

To shut off AS1 would mean less people buying Flash9 and that is not good for business.

No, you have to use this thing wheter you like it or not, sooner or later they will cut out AS1 and than AS2 and than AS3...
Or change the name of everything in AS again, call it AS4 and make the new player be fast only with A$4...
If it can increase profits, you can make sure they will do

Not to make a profit. I don't understand how that would work.

I think the functionality you could gain from AS1 (& AS2) was limited, so revisions have to be made. From the looks of AS3 things have changed to make code faster and to give programmers even more control over what is happening under the shell.

Sure it sucks to have to keep learning, but I believe it's usually for the better. And with the changes I'm sure we will see a huge range of possibilities.

I mean, if there wasn't change, we would still be writing in machine code. :rolleyes:

If they make the old AS useless, than they make profit when poeple have to buy the new flash to use the new AS
Abou the byte code stuff, i agree with you.I also know there is gonna be some usefull changes, but the cost benefit relationship worth it?
What i dont like are the changes that looks like they are just changing the words of the code...to do the same thing...and i know i will have to learn, cos AS!, AS2, or whatever, will die or will not work faster in the new player
I dont really want to spend the rest of my life learning a new language every year, to do almost the same thing i could do before,even if this new language have one or two new bit usefull...i mean, that would be much more effort than to learn java...

I don't see why they have to revamp the whole thing. They could just as easily ,add functionality to the language, without removing some as well. I agree with Incrue on this one, there are profits to be made, hence a major motivator in the constant "improvement" of AS. They know they can always reel in developers new to the language, and that all the loyal sheep will have to either evolve or get passed by. Sounds rather Microsoftian. :devil:

I'm not saying this new edition is not an improvement, I'm just wondering why improving something requires messing up what you already had.

I think this thread was started by Tony to discuss cool things people who want to use AS3.0 had found.

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Originally Posted by chriserrorplain

I think this thread was started by Tony to discuss cool things people who want to use AS3.0 had found.

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That was main idea :)

I guess its still too early and not many people have actually tried it yet.

I've never tried it, so I can't really evaluate it...
Is there some type of Beta version, or compiler available?

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Originally Posted by tonypa

That was main idea :)

I guess its still too early and not many people have actually tried it yet.

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I've actually downloaded the alpha versions of Flex 2 and Flash Player 8.5, but how the heck can I start using AS 3.0 in Flash MX?!!! I mean, the only way is to use Flex 2.0, but then you are required to learn a whole seperate language (mxml) to start using AS 3.0 in Flex.

Tonypa, you got any ideas as to how to publish to FP 8 from Flash.