Actionscript 2 - Complete?

[alhim]

If I were to plunge into Flash 8 Pro right now, as I have been a graphic and web designer for quite some time now, and am now more studious and serious about this area (flash and actionscript), could I study Actionscript 2 and completely abandon Actionscript 1.0? Could I walk forward into this area confidently, and design flash websites, and applications, without ever needing to learn Actionscript 1.0, and leave a flurry of successful buttons and animations and interaction in my wake? Or must I learn both?
This is a really important question to me right now, as I have just ordered a few books, and need to make sure I am not making any major mistakes at the doorstep.
Thank you for your time, any input is appreciated.
Eric B

[Lexicon]

You can't really learn as2 without actually learning as1 as they are basically the same thing. On a simplified level, as2 is basically as1 in a custom class. So no, you cannot learn as2 without at least learning as1 at the same time.

You'll probably find that most as2 books have a pre-requisite that you are familiar with as1 and it is very rare that you would ever build a project in as2 alone.

I can see where you might get confused though because in the Flash8 help files all the as1 is now referred to in the as2 language reference. But if you look more carefully you will see that in most of the methods and properties have as1 listed as their availabilty.

I would advise that you learn all the as1 you can before tackling custom classes as it will help you learn the syntax of actionscript, scoping and referencing before delving into the stricter, less forgiving class syntax.

You can't really go wrong in learning anything actionscript based. I would advise looking at more recent tutorials though, anything after Flash 5 is more useful then Flash 5 and earlier because of quite large changes made in 6 onwards.

[brocej]

Don't get offended but I would disagree with Lexicon. I think you CAN just learn AS2, and if I had to start from scratch I would do just that.

AS2 is not just about classes. It includes the basic principles of AS1 but builds on them to create a better and stronger language. It is not just about the new features (classes, etc.), it also takes important concepts such as type casting from other programming languages. It can do everything AS1 can do plus more.

This is only my opinion. You learn the way you want to learn. But learning AS1 first it is kind of like saying, if you want to learn to drive you must learn in a 1920s car, only then can you learn to drive in a modern one.

[Dr. Know]

that is the big problem for those who "design" websites . there was no need to learn script thing before. and post of them did not try that all. "like me" . now when i am trying to learn Action Script i dont have base of programming. many time i confused in global and local variables, and many time i confused in if and conditions. as i think one who work on front-end could not work on back-end and one who work on back-end could not design eye catching designs. but Macromedia is trying to tech them both. if you think you can handle both things at a time then go ahead and learn AS. version 1 or 2 will not the problem.

Wish You Best of Luck.

[brocej]

I think his problem is not whether to learn AS, but which version to learn first.

[Lexicon]

no offense taken, but the point i make is that if you are learning as2 you are automatically learning as1. Therefore it is impossible to learn as2 without learning as1.

The type operator was introduced as as1 flash player 6.

If you read the as2 language reference guide you will see that 90+% of it was introduced as as1.

If you want to learn how to drive a Ferrari properly you must first learn how to drive with a manual stick shift!

[brocej]

I see your point. However, not all AS1 is used anymore. For example there is no point in learning about prototypes because AS2 classes have superseeded them. I do agree though that if you know AS1 you know a lot of AS2.

[Lexicon]

yes prototypes are pretty useless now, although there are some uses of some of the prototype functionality that can be quite useful used with classes. But on the whole setting up prototypes in the typical sense is not useful any more.

[alhim]

Thank you Lexicon and Brocej (and Dr. Know) for your responses, and opinions, this was exactly what I was looking for. Though of course, two mostly opposing viewpoints does leave me to decide for myself I suppose, but certainly in a more informed way.

[deadbeat]

You might find this link helpful:

http://www.kirupa.com/developer/oop2/AS2OOPindex.htm

K.

[alhim]

Thanks for the link, deadbeat, it most defenitely is helpful.