- The Player is the Thing...
- Two Versions of Flash 2004
- What Everyone Gets
- The New Components
- Using Behaviors with Flash MX 2004
- Moving through Time with the History Panel
- Move Over ActionScript, Here Comes the New Version...
- Going Beyond Flash MX
- The Other Flash MX 2004
- What's Next?
Move Over ActionScript, Here Comes the New Version...
As you might expect, there are lots of new features to ActionScript, the programming language used by Flash to make movies interactive. The first thing I should point out is that there is now a new version of ActionScript called ActionScript 2.0. Flash 5 began a new course for ActionScript: to follow more closely the syntax structure of JavaScript. This was extended with Flash MX and, finally, with Flash MX 2004 you will find that ActionScript very strictly follows the JavaScript syntax, as outlined by the international standardization established by ECMA Script.
The most notable difference a programmer will now experience is that ActionScript is now a real object-oriented programming language. This is essential to building scalable solutions for companies that have web applications being used by millions of people each and every day.
Other changes you will notice include a richer print class with methods and properties. The print class supercedes the print functions available with Flash 5.
There are so many new changes with ActionScript 2.0 and I have an article on the new version of ActionScript being prepared for the Guide. I am also working on extending the Guide to include more comprehensive articles on ActionScript.