JD on EP

As I say to my students, clients, developers and friends. The strongly-type definition in new Actionscript 3 if it were since the begining I really know that we also had a chance to be more power then even before.
The support of E4X in AS3 it's amazing, those thons of situations you can create, manipulate, creating Objects in run time, declarativa typists, easly external interface communication.

If I advice someone to start coding in AS3 I just say.

Want to control everything since a little Object into a multidimentional array? just try for while AS3, you will sure not want to step back to 2.
You plus additional situation like avm2, more stable and performance application. Real AS OOP programming language, based on MVC(this rocks!).

With the strongly market demand, Actionscript has growedup to became such child to an adult with strong scence of work to do.

A simple quote ( Actionscript3 separates prototypes childs to Strong adults packages.)

Regards.

Simple, use Flex Builder 2. Its ability to code hint and provide on the fly error checking will keep the AS2 undesireables contained.

I think the single biggest thing that pulled me into AS3 is the error stack trace and sane error messages. When you are running high profile applications, and when things suddenly break, seeing a stack trace telling you where the error has occurred is a life saver. That plus a toolset that helps an actual production workflow (Command-line compiler, FlexUnit, ASDocs) just makes choosing AS3 a no-brainer.

*sigh*
I wish that I could make the jump to writing AS3, but the reality for me is based on the clients my company serves, making this not possible just yet.

Only last year were we able to set our baseline to publishing content for Flash Player 7. A lot of clients are still not willing to publish for Flash Player 8 - we have shared the stats available on the Adobe site showing the high penetration of FP8, but based on the stats that they have for their site visitors, it is still not enough to make the baseline FP8.

So making to jump to FP9 is still a long ways off, well at least for us. I am hoping that when future web app projects surface that we can recommend FP9 w/ AS3 (for client internal tools, etc.) And with the success of those projects, attempt to transition for all types of projects..

I'm just starting to pick up AS3. It's not likely that I'll be using Flex at work - Xbox.com/Zune.net - anytime soon but I'm hoping I can find some project to do in Flex so that I can get paid for learning it.

I downloaded the public beta of Flash 9 so I can use AS3 and publish for FP9. Now the issue becomes what would make using AS3 compelling? We don't have any data intensive RIAs so the performance increase isn't likely to be very noticeable over FP8. We deal with XML on all our RIAs so I can't wait to use the E4X controls. But I wrote a class for parsing XML that is good enough for our purposes. (Now I sort'a wish I hadn't.)

My biggest hope is to turn the entire homepage, maybe even the whole site, into Flash at which point I'm pretty sure it would be best to use Flex to build the shell. But that's a long way off if it ever happens.

Can anyone suggest arguments that might persuade the powers that be to publish for FP9?

[jd sez: Howdy, I've enjoyed your writing... for that "persuasion" angle I usually first try to learn what's important to them, what has led them to their current judgment... scripting speed makes FP9 important; realtime graphics or tighter video pushes towards FP8 or better. Knowing the makeup of the current audience helps too -- early adopters are usually more up-to-date than general audiences, for instance.]</strong.

The AS3 Model of development process for application developers saves so much time it's unreal. If I had to benchmark AS2 vs AS3 Development off the top of my head, I would say AS2 development takes about 2x longer then an AS3 project would -- 95% of that can be attributed to the compile-time errors and warnings.

AS3 Projects are easier to read, and easier to implement.

Yeah... I am in the "tease" category. I ended up brushing up on 3.0 when I got back into Flash a month or so ago. I was thrilled. Then when looking for work I realized that it will be 2.0 for at least another year around here. People still want Flash Player 6 and 7 support.

So, no AS 3.0 for me professionally for a while... so I have been relearning AS 2.0.

On the flip side, so many CIS students will be able to just jump right into AS 3.0 coding. People who used to turn up their noses or shy away from the bizarre syntax of AS will now be able to dive right in. I am not sure how much the Event Programming model has changed in AS 3.0, but I expect a lot traditional Flash Artist and Developers whom have no proper Computer Science background to lose work to more traditionally trained developers. This could mean a lot of people will lose jobs, especially people that write really nasty "hacky" code often found with Flash programmers.

It seems Flash has finaly reached a point where relativley complex projects require 2 or more skill sets. As a designer I've been wrestling with ActionScript since version 4. It's been a challenge but I've done ok. The move to AS3 has broken me. I just can't spend anymore time re-learning this language which seems more and more suited to hard core developers. I'm sure there are thousands of other designers out there who are feeling the same frustration. What was initially a tool for the designer has evolved into a production suite requiring many skill sets. Its a natural progression I suppose. However I can't help thinking that I've lost my independance. The evolution of flash has been a rocky road full of holes and bugs which have taken days to fix. I only wish I was picking it up now and not 5 years ago.

I have yet to understand why adobe didn't build a code converter. Porting 100's of classes over is a nightmare!

My advice to new AS3 coders? Know about memory management, but don't go overboard. AS3 code certainly has the potential to leak memory and crash a browser, but unless you think you're truly capable of doing that, your naivete will protect you while you learn your way around the language.

Once you develop pride in your AS3 work, only then should you start worrying about memory leaks. Let your program run through its most intensive elements for an hour, and see whether it slows down. Then you take it from there.

Early memory management anxiety will only slow you down!

I heavily agree with Justin Spencer on this. Years ago, I got into Flash 4 with the reassurance that Flash was created for designers and design purposes. Not a developer by nature or trade, the transition from slash syntax into AS1 and AS2 was gradual and rocky, but doable. To see Flash make a definite turn towards application building may make sense to the 'new' generation of Flash users, but for us old schoolers who just want to enrich our designs with animation and interactivity, AS3 hardly seems like a dream come true. We don't have CS3 here at work yet so I haven't had the chance to get into it, but from what I've heard so far I'm not too happy. I've ordered Colin Moock's new book as I have for the two previous versions cause I don't see any other way that to adopt AS3 eventually, but I really wish that there wasn't so much new stuff to learn with every new release, I simply can't find the time. The problem really is that as a designer I can't keep my developer's skillset up anymore, and being able to combine the two as a single person has always been one of the key benefits of Flash. It's a shame that that is gradually being taken away.

AS3 is more efficient, no doubt. But still, designers who have been loyal to Flash and adapted to using ActionScript over the years are all feeling the same sentiment- what the hell happened to the language I learned to love!?

I am all for efficiency, and I have more experience in Java and OO programming, so I appreciate a lot of the new format...

Still, why abandon the enabled designer? I wish they would release ActionScript5 (2+3=5?) ... Support both with warnings about deprecated expressions or something like the evolution of HTML...

THen maybe stranded designer+'s wouldnt all be thinking... "Oh attachMovieClip, getNextHighestDepth.. swapDepths.. removeMovieClip... where have you gone?"

Well, for what it is worth ...

There is a wide gap now between traditional flash creative technologists and fresh converts due to AS3 complexity and verbosity, as well as the time needed to produce incredible work. This gap will only get wider.

The truth is, nearly everyone that pushed Flash to become as popular as it is today were not developers. They were mostly designers, rocking some cool motion, experimental math, and some brilliant interaction that was (at the time of creation) too complex to try and recreate with other client side languages and html. Type that rendered the same across all views of a design project was a huge step up for the web too -- A lot of designers I know care more about type than their mothers. Did I mention that early adopters were DESIGNERS?

This is where the detachment comes in. A lot of designers could care less about code, and most developers could care less about typography or how things look. Previously, it took a rare individual to produce some awesome work on both levels. Those that did, are the ones that really pushed Flash, and since Flash is a visual application for end users, is it a wonder that so many designers used it as a primary tool alongside PS and AI?

From a workflow standpoint, AS3 is takes longer to create something that is actually creative and not just application or logic based. RIAs will not be a problem, as AS3 structures nicely. Experience design will not resurface for a while in AS3 (I'm sure some would beg to differ) . Flash is no longer a design tool, it is a development tool ...

I'm seeing a lot more people having to touch a project -- which means higher costs/fees, more staff per project, and longer production time (yes, longer -- even with the new efficiency and structure of AS3).

While Adobe has pushed Flash into a better place from a development standpoint, they may have alienated a lot of the core users that pushed MM's product to the top (making Adobe want to purchase MM).

Now, to the real story, AS3 is great once you get accustomed to the new syntax and features. If you're coming from an AS2 background, you will find that you know more than you think. This isn't to say that you won't have some growing pains.

I'm hoping to see new rock-stars come out of this, and the new rift closed soon.

Well, tried to pick up AS3 for 2 weeks now, bought books, followed online courses etc, I originally started being involved proffesionally with flash @ version 3.0 and so far that flashmx-flash cs3 was the hugest change and imo, there should be more steps in between. I feel confident that perhaps code"helpers' ( like the old syntax helper ) will appear perhaps in cs3.5 or smth, making it easier for us Designers/Art directors to actually do productive work. Right now it feels like i have been introduced to a .net framework with Flash's interface.