ActionScript

ActionScript is an ECMAScript-based programming language used for controlling Macromedia Flash movies and applications. Since both ActionScript and JavaScript are based on the same ECMAScript syntax, fluency in one easily translates to the other. However, where the client model of JavaScript deals with the structure of browser windows, documents and forms, ActionScript deals with the structure and interactivity of Macromedia Flash movies, which may include animations, audio, text and client-side logic.

Related Topics:
ECMAScript - Macromedia Flash - JavaScript - Window - Form - Client-side

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ActionScript achieved something resembling its current syntax (retroactively named ActionScript 1.0) in Flash 5, the first version of Flash to be thoroughly programmable. Flash 6 broadened the power of the programming environment by adding many more built-in functions and allowing more programmatic control of movie elements. Flash 7 (MX 2004) introduced ActionScript 2.0, which adds strong typing and object-oriented features such as explicit class declarations, inheritance, interfaces, and encapsulation. ActionScript 1.0 and 2.0 share the same compiled form within Flash SWFs.

Related Topics:
Programming environment - Object-oriented - Class - Inheritance - Interfaces - Encapsulation

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Features of the Flash ActionScript implementation that JavaScript programmers may find interesting:

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• Everything is designed to be asynchronous; callbacks are ubiquitous, but Event objects do not exist.
• The XML implementation has been solid since Flash 5. Flash can send and receive XML asynchronously.

ActionScript code is frequently written directly in the Flash authoring environment, which offers reference and syntax highlighting. In this case, the source code is saved along with the rest of the movie in a .fla file. It is also common for ActionScript code to be imported from external text files via #include statements. In this case, the external files are often given .as extensions, but this is not a universal convention.

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In ActionScript 2.0 there can be classes, and also, a library item (a movie clip) can be associated with a class. Classes are always written in external text files, and these files must have the .as extension.

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The ActionScript 2.0 compiler is notoriously slow, often taking several minutes to compile around 100 classes.

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