Majority of work has been mobile (Flash Lite), but I (and a lot of others) would like to go to AS3 for mobile and devices work … if a roadmap would allow for that.
For Flash Lite/AMC Development, I have to use AS1/2. It’s fun to have to switch between all three version, since I also do some Flex/AIR development as well ;) At least I no longer need to use Lingo.
I am using 2 because my clients are not supporting anything higher than Flash 8 on their sites.
Also lots of corporations need the their IT department to upgrade anything on their computers and apparently upgrading the Flash player id not a priority.
Finally I work with a lot of in house teams and they are not up to snuff on AS3, so I need to work within their comfort zone.
I recently did a rush project that required using webservices. The Webservice classes are not available in CS3 AS3 (I later found some hacks that might’ve worked) so I did it quick and dirty using AS2 since everything I needed was available. Hopefully CS4 includes these AS3 libraries (at least a port from the Flex ones?)
I also work in as2 because my client’s framework targets flp8. my client is a bank, and they aim to support many users with older systems. they also have several suppliers that need to work inside the same framework.
We haven’t touched AS2 for well over a year and a half. We have been able to either turn down old legacy work, or convince the client of the merits of upgrading. It also doesn’t hurt that much of the stuff we do actually requires the performance increases in the AVM 3.
While we still see a lot of demand for AS2, we have made it official policy to refuse anything except AS3 work. After getting used to working in flex going back to AS2 and the flash IDE was a major headache we just prefer not to ever repeat. Until/unless Flash IDE picks up some of the features of flex we have demoted it from RIA development tool back to the animation tool it began life as.
I have been using ActionScript 3 almost exclusively. The only time is when mobile support is required, or for the occasional legacy project that may return with a change or two.
Anytime I am back in AS2, I just scream, its two different worlds entirely.
Several reasons for still playing in AS2, but primarily is that clients are concerned about maintaining maximum compatibility and often (in my opinion unreasonably) set their specs too low to run AS3. I’d make more of a fuss, but for production level work, I can’t often point at a compelling *client oriented* benefit to upping the spec. For me it would be an obvious improvement in most cases, but that does not translate to things the client sees as valuable enough to warrant cutting out even a small percentage of users. Of course this will eventually shift now that player v10 is out.
Other than user compatibility, the biggest hold up has been clients that have not made the jump to AS3. I’m required to play well with others, so I write code that they feel comfortable with and can work with internally. Again, this is shifting, but slowly.
No way :) .. Well actually sometimes, when a client requires some update to his website, which I did in F8/AS2 (in the good old days when using drop shadow/blur filters was coolest thing ) and I’m not planning to port it to AS3 never and ever :D
The only times I use AS1/2 is when the previous project was built in AS1/2 and needs updates. If it is ever a new build, I will use AS3.
However, there are quite a few developers I know that are very insistent on staying on AS1/2. They all seem to come from a very traditional Flash background. The older Flash animators that learned Actionscript back in the Flashkit (no offense) days. Frame scripts, deprecated code, _root, bad architecture, etc… No matter how many reasons we come up with about how much better and more efficient OOP is, they won’t come around on it.
I usually wouldn’t mind this, but when I have to open their code 6 months down the road, it just slows things down that much more.
AS1 might possibly be the future of programming. :)
AS1 is like free love in the 70s, whereas AS3 is like writing code wearing protection. Only a true developer doesn’t understand why people still use AS1/2…
Yeah I’ve had to use it at my current job (for the last 6 months) and my previous job for the same reason: a large code base written in AS2 that we reuse constantly. In my previous position we used Flash Slide presentations constantly and there didn’t seem to be a whole lot of support for that when cs3 came out. My current job is trying to move forward to AS3 now but with such a huge code base, its a big deal, but a good time to start fresh.
I work in a large ad agency and we do a lot of banners. The vendors we use (Pointroll and Eyewonder) can handle AS3/Flash player 9 banners. The problem is that the sites on the media buy have requirements that have to meet the lowest common denominator, which in the case of banners is Flash Player 7 and a rich media banner it’s Flash Player 9. If the sites update their requirements I can start using Flash Player 9 and AS3 for at least rich media. So very frustrating!
Compatibility with legacy SWFs, such as those produced by Adobe Captivate.
It’s a big curve to go from AS2 to AS3 — and a lot of work to recode existing projects to use AS3 — so we’ve tended to put it off as long as possible. In general working with AS3 just seems to take longer.
Larger corporate clients haven’t upgraded to FP9/10… so sometimes we _have_ to use AS2. By that I mean often corporate clients maintain a set install base across all of their computers, and they don’t upgrade Flash Player very often.
Online-media/banner ads are still primarily AS2. We all know AS3 is more security featured than AS2.
Another reason I see AS2 still in use - the unexplained *fear* that the uninformed clients and colleagues that is of - using the latest means making the flash player less accessible.
It would be nice to have a rock solid resource, to point those that are uninformed to - that would fully justify waiving the fear of ALWAYS staying with the latest flash player.
I still use as2 - but as2 with FDT is like a dream in heaven. Why move over except if I want to do some 3d stuff. There needs to be some compelling reason to use as3 like some bad ass component set thats free with flash 9… or data and web service components actually implemented. That was a major blow for me when they removed that from flash 9 cs3 (as3 versions).
I use AS1 when i explain in my formation the ECMAScript and the based prototype language, it’s important in AS3, AS2 and AS1… The dynamic language with the construction functions already exist in AS3.
It’s important to use AS1 and JS1.5 with Flash Media Server (for the moment if Adobe don’t change the internal JS core of the server … a new version of FMS4 with AS3 or JS2 it’s a good idea ;))
But AS3 is the best way to develop… i have depreciated all my opensource AS2 project and i develop only the AS3 version now :)
Yep. Unfortunately some clients still have stats for their users having Flash 8 more than they have Flash 9. So, on at times I’m asked to write something in Flash 8, like a month ago.
I’m 100% gunho AS3 though. I’d never choose AS2 and wouldn’t pay someone to write AS2 either.
I still use AS2 when having to work with some legacy code, when wanting to avoid some security features, or when the designer of the company is involved or required to work on some basic things (he mainly knows just AS1 and some basic functions).
However I really like AS3 and try to use whenever possible, and update legacy code to it.
PS: BTW, out of curiosity, what happened with that Pixel Bender Grayscale Filter Vs. Flash ColourMatrix benchmark?
Mostly just use AS2 for legacy reasons: banner work, existing AS2 all-Flash sites, that sort of thing. We have a large library of AS2 classes we reuse all the time, but we’ve migrated them over to AS3 as needed, so mainly it’s only for sites that were built before Flash Player 9 became saturated enough.
Virtually all new work (that is not a banner) is AS3.
I haven’t taken the time to learn enough AS3 that I’d feel confident using it for client work that is constantly rushed. It pains me that I haven’t accomplished this yet, because the little bit of AS3 I DO know feels very natural, and I’d love to take advantage of the VM2.
What do you think of my comment above, regarding a rock slid resource to provide those overly-cautious/uninformed about how easy it is to keep users updated with the flash players, and stop worrying about the “flash player download percentage”?
I think the main reason as2 is faster and easier to develop the same thing is because we’re used to it. Its simple, clean and nice. Its the same as javascript - simple and thats why it takes off. There are idiosyncrasies, but look at what it takes to load an image in as3 - they made it more complicated. Why? It should be simpler in as3, still has a great api, but simpler. Not 10 classes to do a simple thing. I mean the as3 classes are java-like - but it loses a bit in the simplification of as2 - as 2 was like total freedom. Of course people who dont know how to write code or come from as1 backgrounds usually hack crap together.
When you have someone who has dev’d in java, has knowledge of design patterns and has a heavy design background as 2 just rocks because its simple and you can get a lot more design / code things done in less time. As3 is more cumbersome in the overcomplication of menial tasks I feel.
I also feel that as2 grows on you. as3 is trying to be a bit more like java - but the errors just kill me. I like exceptions, dont get me wrong. But when im trying to design some really creative shit in as3 its sometimes takes a lot more time to do simple things.
Some people might be confusing workflows as well, flex is awesome, but as 3 with flash is problematic in the simplicities. I guess its less “hack” but at the same time you want more freedom within design pattern guidelines … adobe is trying to handle the problem of as2 being called a kiddie language, but at the same time javascript and as2 are almost identical - i personally prefer as2 because of classes. More formal. But thats my two cents.
The workflow of as3 with flash needs to be better worked out. Also - whats with no real editor? I got to pay $500 for FDT when it should be part of flash cs3/cs4.
I do use as3 - but I try to stick to as2 within work guidelines because I know I can do some clean stuff in less time than if I did it in as3. If I was doing some intensive processing or 3d work then I would definitely use as3. Also the player penetration is just out enough that im going to start targeting for 9.0.45.
I wish I could get some AS2 work! I told my clients that I charge double for it. It would be painful to go back and work with it but can you say “easy money”? :-)
Seriously, I avoid opening the Flash IDE at all costs.
After doing a couple of jobs in AS3, I reluctantly went back to AS2. There are too many bugs in too many versions of the Flash 9 player. In particular, I noticed the memory management problems, but I didn’t realize how bad they were before Grant Skinner’s blog post about it.
I’ll probably start using it again sometime after the second bug fix for FP 10.
I get AS2 work only when I’ve been bad and the gods are punishing me. LOL.
I still have some legacy work with a few clients that’s AS2 but all new projects are AS3 only. I generally have no problems convincing any of my clients to support Flash Player 9.
I’m not a code snob, so whatever gets the job done quickest with minimal fuss, least lines of code, least hassle.
I’m agreed with Bobby, most scripting I’d do would be say a few dozen to a couple hundred lines, and I use AS2 all the way (95%) unless there’s a specific feature/performance boost required that is AS3 (e.g using something like papervision).
Each impossibly worded error message or workaround in AS3 = tripped up and googling for hours again, plus 10 lines of code where 2 or 3 would do before (is progress having to write more code not less?) and THE most useless error/compile messages of all time.
Mobile devices currently do not support AS3 content. Oftentimes clients have legacy code that has to be maintained in AS2 and cannot afford to port the project to AS3
When developing for ScaleForm (reverse engineered Flash plugin, ww.scaleform.com), it’s has got to be ActionScript 2…
And from time to time, I have to implement change request for my first RIA I made back in 2003 and that was in ActionScript 1 (good ol’ prototype “classes”).
In the last year my projects have been approximately 60% AS3 and 40% AS2. All the marketing agencies that I contract with still target Flash Player 8 and want AS2 for websites and banners to achieve maximum audience reach. My more interesting projects are in AS3.
I should mention that I teach Flash at a local college where the typical student is more artist than programmer (they initially cringe at the thought of coding). I’ve found that AS3 tends to overwhelm them, whereas AS2 is much more approachable.
I find that many of the things that I could do easily with AS2 are not so easy to learn (i.e. levels on a movie clip, display list, and setting focus). Importing all the libraries is also time-consuming. I’m self-taught and use it in education, and find the learning curve time-intensive. Also, most school computers are not equipped with the most current Flash player.
I agree with @bobby insofar as a very basic project is way faster to put together in AS2. The problem, of course, is when the project grows and then you have to kick yourself.
I only recently (well for 1 year now) started getting a lot of AS3. Now it seems like everything is AS3 and I prefer it. But, some projects take a very long time on the calendar and so I had some AS2 jobs that started years earlier.
I’m not 100% what qualifies as AS1 vs. AS2. Typing? Using classes? I mean, really, it’s pretty much the same thing underneath right?
We need a way to upgrade existing embedded swfs on other sites to as3 in a backwards compatible way.
If you have existing swfs out there that work with flash player 7 or 8 but want to upgrade without breaking those, there is no way.
Maybe you could add a way to load as3 swfs into as2 swfs so we can do the detection in the swf itself and then load a 2nd swf that is the actual content.
(PS: the only part of the MM-Adobe merger that totally sucked: getting rid of Flashpaper. Adobe bring it back, please, Acrobat doesn’t even come close.)
Yes, we still use AS2 for a number of projects because it’s economical to do so - we have a large legacy code library and developers who arent yet fully trained up in AS3 and because of that it’s much cheaper to get an AS2 project out the door.
We are building a new codebase and build system in AS3 and have used it for two major projects, but migration is a slow process.
I’ve read through most the comments here - most people who read this blog are going to be developers so it is heavily biased (I found this link via Flash Magazine). I would say I am half designer / half developer - as such I want the freedom to quickly mock up ideas with code… AS3 simply doesn’t allow that - it’s far too strict, having to constantly import libraries, write 3 times the amount of code to do such simple things.
I’m still very comfortable in AS2 and work very fast on small to medium projects - if AS3 could retain a lot of the more commonly used functions of AS2 without the extra code I would consider “upgrading”. Until that day I simply can’t see me ever being converted (I remember when Macromedia removed the script assist in Flash 7 - I simply stuck with 2006 as I needed something I can quickly work with when in designing).
I have been migrating to AS3 and really like the power of it. I honestly don’t think there are enough “affordable” resources for learning the deeper subjects of AS3. I’m not good yet with the use of classes to replace timeline scripts. I wish Adobe (or someone) would provide, even at a nominal fee, comprehensive training. I tried Lynda but it was surface knowledge at best…the basics. I have to scour the forums and blogs for my needs.
I use 50% AS2 and 50% AS3. The main reason for using AS2 is for maintenance of old projects, banners and building applications with 3rd party projectors.
If i have to prototype something in a couple of hours, as2 still has the edge in development speed. Only because I’ve been using as2 for years, and as3 for months.
Recently i had to build something for an online interactive magazine platform, eveything gets pulled into an as2 wrapper, so only as2 works.
Those are the exceptions, as3 is so much better organised and code execution speed is a dream.
We have only just started using AS3 on commercial projects, but the important aspect for us isn’t about the language version its about what features we can build on top of a particular version of flash player, if a feature requires FP9 or above then we will use AS3.
Our clients are mainly schools in the UK so the uptake of new player versions is slower than ‘in the wild’, so we have to provide a good reason for targeting a higher player version, i.e. a feature which would really improve the application but which can only be achieved by using a newer player.
And of course there is the issue of having an extensive AS2 codebase which would take a long time to port to AS3, so the actual cost of implementing an app in AS3 would be far higher than AS2. Often our clients ask for new applications in terms of existing applications, ‘we want it like App X just change the graphics, take these features out and add in A,B and C’, so building that from our AS2 codebase is obviously the quickest and most cost-effective solution.
now, if there was a tool for automatically translating AS2 to AS3 then that might help speed up the migration. :)
Sorry Mike - what I meant earlier is that I have a compelling reason to learn AS3 because I have an application that needs porting and is perfect for AIR.
Hi,
I still write as2 because it gets stuff done and runs everywhere. A lot of open source projects in Flash have never got around to using AS3, and they have no commercial equivalent. See http://silex-ria.org, for example.
Ariel
We believed in the Flash platform before the concept was even popular. As a result, we have built a framework over the years which would take at least a year and a half to port to AS3 if at all possible since it also encompasses the use of products like FlashPaper.
Even then, if we did get it ported, by the time we are done, we would probably be out of business.
[...] dos mais importantes evangelistas do Flash está perguntando no seu blog oficial se os desenvolvedores ainda estão usando as versões anteriores da linguagem do Flash: O [...]
At work we still use flash 8 because we have not hadcany new contract money to purchase cs3/4.
However, I have cs3 at home, and I must say, though I know this will be an unpopular remark, that as3 way over complicates simple tasks. Making a drag and drop takes 3 times the amount of work for instance.
I love as3 for AIR projects and the langauge improvements are priceless, but a great deal of the simplicity is as2 was lost, which is rather disappointing.
I’m still using AS2 for a lot of things. As much as I really prefer AS3, a lot of my clients have in-house people who ultimately end up responsible for the projects I turn over to them. Lots of them are designers more than developers (meaning it took them forever to get a grasp of AS2… and AS3 is still greek to them) so the spec will call for AS2
Having just used as3 for my first major commercial project (i’ve done a few personal ones but nothing on this scale) I have to say that it was a far buggier experience than even the shockingly buggy as2. As a former java developer it amazes me that concepts as simple as class hierarchy simply dont work as expected in as3 without doing a bunch of silly hackery.
The performance increase is really the only thing that will keep me coming back to as3.
One benefit of AS3 that people don’t seem to mention too often… and something I only recently really noticed–is how much more reliable the code I produce in AS3 is. Not like it’s bug free, but it’s way better and takes less time to test. Maybe I’m just always getting better but I think it’s more the verbose errors and strict compile rules that help.
I still use AS1 and AS2 as most of my projects are mobile. To be perfectly honest I find AS3 very similar to Java and if I have to learn new language features and a new API it might as well be Java - especially when working on mobile apps.
AS3 might just be the language that makes me switch from the Flash platform.
I have been stuck with AS2 mainly because our clients only supports Flash player 7 or 8. Another reason is thhat the framework we work within is currently AS2 based, howewer that is about to change now. Also, our inhouse team are not up to speed in AS3 yet.
Personally I´m about to make the switch to AS3 during the following weeks, finally! Flex will have to wait until early next year though…
@Dan AS2 Shockingly buggy? Silly Hackery? Without some references you comment is FUD.
I am working exclusively in AS3 but others around me have yet to make the jump even to using class based development. It’s a widening gap between people who use AS to script animations (because they don’t care/are lazy/don’t have the time/don’t know what they don’t know), and people who treat it as a programming language and like to leverage it for their art or applications.
It’s nice to see such passionate responses from the community, I’m particularly interested in people fighting the AS2 corner regarding the easy of use factor and I’m going to go for a rather controversial response.
Basically people have been spoiled by methods such as .loadMovie in AS2. If you want to rely on code that does it all for you then your missing the intricate details of how that operation works (catching errors, handling events etc). If you want to do some fast prototyping then build a framework that that allows you to do so, ActionScript is a language not a ‘coding wizard’. In particular the Flex Builder IDE and the FDT plug-in for eclipse practically eradicates the time it takes to write one line as apposed to 10 lines.
I guess I’m just grumpy because I hate maintaining AS2 code, I’ve been spoiled by AS3.
AS3 is the way to go, its super fast, very structural and easy to learn. in addition its the future of flash, i can now explore the power of GPU and dynamic sound. not forgetting the new drawing API is going to make a huge impact with 3D in flash.
I run a small advertising studio together with my wife.
I come from the illustration side of the business.
When started I had a companion who was writing the scripts.
At one point this guy left and I had to learn the action scripting.
Back in 2004 mx time I still recall the time it took to get somewhere with it.
Frankly I don’t have the time to invest in stepping from AS2 to AS3 in the near future.
Having said that, I’d like to and will sometime.
So for now its AS2.
To support “legacy” products, and when the client ask for FP8 :P.
i can`t use the AIR because of the clients, they don`t know how to install.
Work with technology in brazil is not easy :P , when you want to do something better, you can`t because the clients are not smart enough to use the application.
I have used a mixture of AS1, 2 & 3 this year:
AS3 / Flex for new standalone projects.
AS3 / CS3 for a website project running 3D code
AS2 / FL8 for a website project similar to a previous one so reusing a lot of existing code/
For my new job, I have taken over a project that uses PDA’s and Linux for an application that shares code. Most of the code is written in AS1 style code using AS2 lib’s. I am looking at porting the Linux app over to AS3, but still need to support the PDA.
I don’t have a problem with AS1 / AS2, the code we have works and it is easier for other people to understand and work with if I am not there. To port the system to AS3 will require a rewrite of a lot of stuff and because it is mainly lots of buttons in different pages + drag n drop, it’s going to take a while to make sure the system works - we have major concern about memory leaks / CPU as this is a kiosk application. So, for now, until dust settles, the current system will continue with AS2.
I like AS3, but it is a huge leap from the AS1 & AS2 days, even for someone who tried to write OO code with this stuff. I think people will use whatever they are comfortable with - why buy a new pair of trousers if the old ones still fit and you like them…
If Flash lite would actually be based on AS3, I would not have to. Adobe?
(Opinion: Having to maintain 2 code bases because Lite does not get the attention from Adobe it needs to succeed sucks)
Sadly yes I still use AS2 to support projects and applications that people will not give me time to recode to AS3. And to make it worse it is getting harder to remember why I did what I did in AS2 since AS3 is such a pleasure to use compared to ‘the old days’ :)
Yes, unfortunately, either following client’s requirements, or to accommodate team workers, banners, or for upgrading old sites that were done in AS1/2.
I never got into AS2 because it essentially compiles to the same bytecode as AS1 and I felt I had more control over AS1.
I also never used components because they were bloated, buggy and were practically unusable in a subsequent IDE release.
It was a bit of a struggle switching to AS3 but it eventually paid off. The engine is a lot faster and my applications are more robust. However, doing a project requires much more discipline and planning. In this sense, it isn’t suited for rapid prototyping anymore.
Also, I am one of those people that does projects in pure actionscript, so developing a project using the Flash IDE is a joke. The actionscript editor hasn’t been updated much since Flash 5 and I use FlashDevelop for coding and then compile with the Flash IDE.
In AS1/2, you were able to preload assets by putting them on different frames. I agree that with AS3, you can load most assets dynamically into objects and reuse them, but there is still no way to do that with fonts.
There should be a Font class which can load font files and, more importantly, load compiled subsets of a font file (which could be perhaps exported from the Flash IDE or using a separate tool)
Otherwise, I am glad the Flash engine went through a complete rewrite because the original one had become a big mess of hacks, unsuitable for any serious work.
I only use AS1 for one project which I have to support, but event that will soon be rewritten (sadly, as a .NET application)
It’s also a sadly YES for AS2 but a proud NO for AS1.
I got some project where the client works with design studios that are in a galaxy far far away from AS3 so all their works are only in AS2, so we must keep working that way.
There’s also a money problem : got some projects that runs under AS2 but some client don’t want to spend money for rebuild them in AS3 (but they still continue to ask fo the new AS3 features for their sites :D ).
Yes, on legacy projects that were originally coded in AS1/AS2. Newer projects have been done using AS3 (both in Flash and now in Flex) though if Flash 7 (or 8 for the bitmap effects) is all that’s required I’m still comfortable working in AS2.
I’d love to get (and hopefully we will in a follow up post) some insight into what’s behind this question.
Also using actionscript 2 because of clients requirements like many others developpers.
For example, I was in meeting with a bank customer and asked which version of flash player should our work be published and I was answered flash 6 :< !!!
I could not move my lips as i was afraid :) !
There’s a gap between IT departments requirements and what can be done
Because I’m job less and companies want me to have both AS2 and 3. Stupid agency people who phone me up say “Can I use flash?” or even worse “Can I do Adobe?” have no idea between AS1, 2 and 3. I interviewed with one giant internet umbrella company recently, who started with a C and ended with a Net, said I needed to have AS2 because they had only just three months ago coded their video player in AS2 and saw no business reason for going to AS3. I ask you….
AS3, sure!! We are (sandbox.com.br) developing rich internet applications and games for multitouch tables using Flash and Flex. We start programming AS3 based on OOP about a one year and now a can say that we are very productive!! :)
Faster code execution? Sure, but it takes me 2-3x longer to develop.
The ability to do a lot more with the language? But how do I use it?
Fully object oriented? But why do I have to import 5 classes to do a few simple actions. In fact, why do I have to import any flash-specific classes at all? (IE - anything in the flash. package, as well as anything in the fl. and the mx.)
Regardless, I am working on making the switch for functionality sake.
The problem I am coming across is that there is no steadfast method for using both AS2 and AS3 together in the same project. I have an eLearning interface built in AS2 that I recently ported to AS3. But I can’t make it backwards-compatible. You can use LocalConnection, but this is a “hacky” method, and works correctly only about 1/3 of the time. The other 2/3 of the time, it mostly crashes the player completely, and every once in a while it just doesn’t work, but lets the player continue running.
Take a hint from the design/development world, and make things easy for designers, while leaving the more difficult stuff for those that would use it. Stop removing functionality that makes things faster and easier, stop removing components. Start beefing up the Flash code view, make flash play nice with flex, make the AVM1 and AVM2 able to play nice together, without errors, without crashing, add new components. These are the things that are necessary to get the world to switch to AS3, at least thats how I see it.
#1 Reason why project was trapped in AS1. Because of a lack of search tools.
The entire project was pretty much created with dynamic creation of movieclips. So Flash’s “search tool” was useless. The application was also huge.
For years I just wanted a simple “Find” tool in which I could tell the tool to search a given .fla file’s ActionScript for a string “foo”. And it would report every instance of that string.
Had I had this simple tool, I could have migrated the app to AS3. Instead the app was a nightmare to upgrade because I did not know all instances of code.
We are using AS2 for a lot of web projects where we need to push creativity with no compromise. We was born as Flash developer and AS2 is grown up with us during the years. We can’t say the same for AS3 who was released and pushed in without a gradual change.
Flex and AS3 is used in our agency (by ex Java programmer) for web and intranet applications, where we are asked to be solid and safe.
We have a creativity approach at new web projects and we feel more free to create with AS2.
Faster code execution? Sure, but it takes me 2-3x longer to develop.
The ability to do a lot more with the language? But how do I use it?
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Could you elborate on this. A number of people here have said that it takes them 2 x 3 times longer to do something in ActionScript 3 as opposed to ActionScript 3.
What is taking so much longer? I know there are a couple of APis that take a few more lines of code in AS3, but is that it? Those APis are causing your development to take 2 x 3 times longer?
I would really appreciate some more info on this…
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Fully object oriented?
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You do realize that you can do procedural code in AS3, just as you can in AS2? i.e. just because you are using AS3, you dont have to write object oriented code.
Switched to AS3 a few months ago. First hated it, now it’s oke. My tought about it is:
AS2 is for designers
AS3 is for developers
I started using AS about 8 years ago, with no programming background (i’m a designer). Loved it because it was easy to learn, and it allowed me to make mistakes.
AS3 is a lot harder to learn, you have to write a lot more code, and it’s very strict. I understand the reason for this, and in the end it will be a better way of programming. But for a designer like me it’s mostly just a pain in the ass to always have to deal with errors when you’re not cleaning up listeners properly, or trying to access undefined variables and stuff.
We occasionally are forced to use AS 2 for banner ads being run by some online publications, due to their requirements.
Our Flash banner ads on our own site have been programmed in AS 3 for the past 6 months. We see in our web tracking reports that most users have at least Flash Player 9.
I think the 2-3x issue is more about folks have snippets and solutions built up over the years. So when they make the transition to AS3, they have to reinvest time and effort in updating those “tried and true solutions”.
People who say that AS3 coding takes 2 or 3 times longer than AS2 probably do not count the debugging time as “programming”. In my experience all those silent errors and the forgiving way of AS2 in general costs you so much more time in the long run that the tiny initial overhead it takes to write AS3 classes is easily compensated.
I maintain that AS3 is not harder to learn than AS2, there’s just a fear of going from elegance in one language to bumbling beginner in another.
Most AS developers aren’t comp-sci majors. They’re designers or artists who fell into coding because it provides a gateway for beautiful interactivity. AS at it’s most basic is easy to understand because you can SEE the result.
I would imagine there was a similar fear when the switch was made from tellTarget to dot syntax, and that if/when ECMAscript ever moves to a more elegant object oriented approach, the adoption rate will be just as slow.
Inevitably, the language will take hold though. The learning curve is nothing more than perception. It takes a week or two or three to feel like you know the AS3 “version” of how to do something in AS2, and then you never forget. And then it quickly becomes apparent that the “easier” language is AS3.
I updated an OPC project from 2->3 about a year ago to learn 3. It was very annoying to make changes and writing events in particular, and all the object typing, seemed cluttered and redundant.
Then I went back to an AS 2.0 OPC project. Wow - I hope I never have to use 2 again. It was like going from AS 2.0 back to Lingo (Director) with all the obscure Movieclip keywords and Actionscript tucked away in random places.
The biggest advantage of AS 3.0 for me is being able to deal with OPC (Other People’s Code)
Ditto to Mario Klingemann - OPC runtime errors are the worst!
There are many factors that go into the “2-3x longer,” when I state it anyways.
First off, there is the added overhead (and also added filesize) of many extra lines. I have a very simple application that I wrote, with a button that takes you to a different frame. What would be 3 lines of code (if you include the close curly bracket) in AS2, is now 4 lines of code. No big whoop, right. Except the AS3 is 112 characters (at the most basic), while the AS2 is 23 characters. That is a 5x difference. So, right there, developing the code for that very basic application of just a simple button click with a gotoAndPlay action takes 5x longer. (bad example, I know, but the point is there)
Secondly, debugging time. I spend more time debugging a basic application in AS3 then I ever did in AS2. I have come across those basic errors in AS2 that fail silently and are a pain in the rear to debug, but in AS3 I come across runtime errors much more frequently, and for things that shouldn’
Only because of client’s stupid system requirements and having to reuse legacy code.
Bob
24 Oct 08 at 11:53 am
Majority of work has been mobile (Flash Lite), but I (and a lot of others) would like to go to AS3 for mobile and devices work … if a roadmap would allow for that.
Scott Janousek
24 Oct 08 at 11:56 am
For Flash Lite/AMC Development, I have to use AS1/2. It’s fun to have to switch between all three version, since I also do some Flex/AIR development as well ;) At least I no longer need to use Lingo.
Chris Griffith
24 Oct 08 at 11:57 am
I am using 2 because my clients are not supporting anything higher than Flash 8 on their sites.
Also lots of corporations need the their IT department to upgrade anything on their computers and apparently upgrading the Flash player id not a priority.
Finally I work with a lot of in house teams and they are not up to snuff on AS3, so I need to work within their comfort zone.
Michael Schaffner
24 Oct 08 at 11:57 am
I recently did a rush project that required using webservices. The Webservice classes are not available in CS3 AS3 (I later found some hacks that might’ve worked) so I did it quick and dirty using AS2 since everything I needed was available. Hopefully CS4 includes these AS3 libraries (at least a port from the Flex ones?)
Daniel Larsen
24 Oct 08 at 12:00 pm
because I must publish swf-y two versions more low than the newest official playe
pemekscreen
24 Oct 08 at 12:03 pm
I work on banners so I still do FP8 AS2 code for them.
Romke de Haan
24 Oct 08 at 12:05 pm
I also work in as2 because my client’s framework targets flp8. my client is a bank, and they aim to support many users with older systems. they also have several suppliers that need to work inside the same framework.
frebro
24 Oct 08 at 12:09 pm
We haven’t touched AS2 for well over a year and a half. We have been able to either turn down old legacy work, or convince the client of the merits of upgrading. It also doesn’t hurt that much of the stuff we do actually requires the performance increases in the AVM 3.
Chris Allen
24 Oct 08 at 12:10 pm
Support for the long tail and other devices (eg, Wii).
Phil Harnish
24 Oct 08 at 12:11 pm
While we still see a lot of demand for AS2, we have made it official policy to refuse anything except AS3 work. After getting used to working in flex going back to AS2 and the flash IDE was a major headache we just prefer not to ever repeat. Until/unless Flash IDE picks up some of the features of flex we have demoted it from RIA development tool back to the animation tool it began life as.
Fuad Kamal
24 Oct 08 at 12:12 pm
I have been using ActionScript 3 almost exclusively. The only time is when mobile support is required, or for the occasional legacy project that may return with a change or two.
Anytime I am back in AS2, I just scream, its two different worlds entirely.
Matthew Keefe
24 Oct 08 at 12:19 pm
AS2, Yes. AS1 no.
Several reasons for still playing in AS2, but primarily is that clients are concerned about maintaining maximum compatibility and often (in my opinion unreasonably) set their specs too low to run AS3. I’d make more of a fuss, but for production level work, I can’t often point at a compelling *client oriented* benefit to upping the spec. For me it would be an obvious improvement in most cases, but that does not translate to things the client sees as valuable enough to warrant cutting out even a small percentage of users. Of course this will eventually shift now that player v10 is out.
Other than user compatibility, the biggest hold up has been clients that have not made the jump to AS3. I’m required to play well with others, so I write code that they feel comfortable with and can work with internally. Again, this is shifting, but slowly.
Ric Ewing
24 Oct 08 at 12:19 pm
No way :) .. Well actually sometimes, when a client requires some update to his website, which I did in F8/AS2 (in the good old days when using drop shadow/blur filters was coolest thing ) and I’m not planning to port it to AS3 never and ever :D
Mario
24 Oct 08 at 12:21 pm
To support “legacy” products. I hate that word, by the way.
Abel Rios
24 Oct 08 at 12:22 pm
The only times I use AS1/2 is when the previous project was built in AS1/2 and needs updates. If it is ever a new build, I will use AS3.
However, there are quite a few developers I know that are very insistent on staying on AS1/2. They all seem to come from a very traditional Flash background. The older Flash animators that learned Actionscript back in the Flashkit (no offense) days. Frame scripts, deprecated code, _root, bad architecture, etc… No matter how many reasons we come up with about how much better and more efficient OOP is, they won’t come around on it.
I usually wouldn’t mind this, but when I have to open their code 6 months down the road, it just slows things down that much more.
Josh Dura
24 Oct 08 at 12:24 pm
[...] Mike Chambers (or, “Mesh” if you prefer) asks “Are you still using AS1 and AS2?” on his blog. [...]
Scott Janousek » Blog Archive » Mike Chambers asks “Are you still using AS1 and AS2?”
24 Oct 08 at 12:26 pm
Because I dont’have updated old system yet.
Francisco
24 Oct 08 at 12:30 pm
Only when updating my old experiments. I’ve been using AS3 for all commercial work for over a year.
Kristin Henry
24 Oct 08 at 12:31 pm
I know people who don’t know AS3 and feel comfortable making things on AS2.
valyard
24 Oct 08 at 12:34 pm
AS1 might possibly be the future of programming. :)
AS1 is like free love in the 70s, whereas AS3 is like writing code wearing protection. Only a true developer doesn’t understand why people still use AS1/2…
funnypants
24 Oct 08 at 12:36 pm
Hey Mike,
Yeah I’ve had to use it at my current job (for the last 6 months) and my previous job for the same reason: a large code base written in AS2 that we reuse constantly. In my previous position we used Flash Slide presentations constantly and there didn’t seem to be a whole lot of support for that when cs3 came out. My current job is trying to move forward to AS3 now but with such a huge code base, its a big deal, but a good time to start fresh.
Cody
24 Oct 08 at 12:37 pm
Haven’t invested the time to learn AS3. Building AS2 projects is fast at the moment.
domin8r
24 Oct 08 at 12:39 pm
I work in a large ad agency and we do a lot of banners. The vendors we use (Pointroll and Eyewonder) can handle AS3/Flash player 9 banners. The problem is that the sites on the media buy have requirements that have to meet the lowest common denominator, which in the case of banners is Flash Player 7 and a rich media banner it’s Flash Player 9. If the sites update their requirements I can start using Flash Player 9 and AS3 for at least rich media. So very frustrating!
Greg North
24 Oct 08 at 12:39 pm
We’ve used AS3 for at least two years. Since Express Install became available, there’s been no reason not to.
Brandon Ellis
24 Oct 08 at 12:40 pm
Compatibility with legacy SWFs, such as those produced by Adobe Captivate.
It’s a big curve to go from AS2 to AS3 — and a lot of work to recode existing projects to use AS3 — so we’ve tended to put it off as long as possible. In general working with AS3 just seems to take longer.
philip
24 Oct 08 at 12:48 pm
I’m still using AS2, simply because I can’t afford to buy another copy of Flash!
Brad
24 Oct 08 at 12:52 pm
Larger corporate clients haven’t upgraded to FP9/10… so sometimes we _have_ to use AS2. By that I mean often corporate clients maintain a set install base across all of their computers, and they don’t upgrade Flash Player very often.
Jon MacDonald
24 Oct 08 at 12:54 pm
Online-media/banner ads are still primarily AS2. We all know AS3 is more security featured than AS2.
Another reason I see AS2 still in use - the unexplained *fear* that the uninformed clients and colleagues that is of - using the latest means making the flash player less accessible.
It would be nice to have a rock solid resource, to point those that are uninformed to - that would fully justify waiving the fear of ALWAYS staying with the latest flash player.
Steven Hargrove
24 Oct 08 at 12:57 pm
Are you thinking about dropping support for the old VM in a future version of the Flash Player? ;)
FWIW, i have been exclusively using AS3 since when Flash Player 8.5 came out.
Claus Wahlers
24 Oct 08 at 1:00 pm
I still use as2 - but as2 with FDT is like a dream in heaven. Why move over except if I want to do some 3d stuff. There needs to be some compelling reason to use as3 like some bad ass component set thats free with flash 9… or data and web service components actually implemented. That was a major blow for me when they removed that from flash 9 cs3 (as3 versions).
austin
24 Oct 08 at 1:06 pm
I was told at my old job NOT to use AS3, that “ActionScript 2 is our standard.” I start my new job on Monday. :)
Myra
24 Oct 08 at 1:16 pm
Hello :)
I use AS1 when i explain in my formation the ECMAScript and the based prototype language, it’s important in AS3, AS2 and AS1… The dynamic language with the construction functions already exist in AS3.
It’s important to use AS1 and JS1.5 with Flash Media Server (for the moment if Adobe don’t change the internal JS core of the server … a new version of FMS4 with AS3 or JS2 it’s a good idea ;))
But AS3 is the best way to develop… i have depreciated all my opensource AS2 project and i develop only the AS3 version now :)
EKA+ :)
ekameleon
24 Oct 08 at 1:18 pm
FlashLite and FlashCast project.
I agree with Scott and would love to use AS3 for mobile/devices development.
shannon r
24 Oct 08 at 1:28 pm
Hi,
AS2 is faster for small/medium projects with few code.
AS3 is powerful but spend ~3 times longer for coding same thing in AS1/2.
And if I start a small/medium project from scratch, the result is that an AS3 is ~2 times more expensive that AS1/2.
bobby
24 Oct 08 at 1:29 pm
Yep. Unfortunately some clients still have stats for their users having Flash 8 more than they have Flash 9. So, on at times I’m asked to write something in Flash 8, like a month ago.
I’m 100% gunho AS3 though. I’d never choose AS2 and wouldn’t pay someone to write AS2 either.
John C. Bland II
24 Oct 08 at 1:32 pm
I still use AS2 when having to work with some legacy code, when wanting to avoid some security features, or when the designer of the company is involved or required to work on some basic things (he mainly knows just AS1 and some basic functions).
However I really like AS3 and try to use whenever possible, and update legacy code to it.
PS: BTW, out of curiosity, what happened with that Pixel Bender Grayscale Filter Vs. Flash ColourMatrix benchmark?
Hector
24 Oct 08 at 1:35 pm
@bobby
–
AS2 is faster for small/medium projects with few code.
AS3 is powerful but spend ~3 times longer for coding same thing in AS1/2.
And if I start a small/medium project from scratch, the result is that an AS3 is ~2 times more expensive that AS1/2.
–
When you say faster, what exactly do you mean? Code execution? Time to develop project?
Why would AS2 be faster than AS3 when developing the project?
Thanks for the input…
mike chambers
mesh@adobe.com
mikechambers
24 Oct 08 at 1:40 pm
Mostly just use AS2 for legacy reasons: banner work, existing AS2 all-Flash sites, that sort of thing. We have a large library of AS2 classes we reuse all the time, but we’ve migrated them over to AS3 as needed, so mainly it’s only for sites that were built before Flash Player 9 became saturated enough.
Virtually all new work (that is not a banner) is AS3.
Dru Kepple
24 Oct 08 at 1:40 pm
I haven’t taken the time to learn enough AS3 that I’d feel confident using it for client work that is constantly rushed. It pains me that I haven’t accomplished this yet, because the little bit of AS3 I DO know feels very natural, and I’d love to take advantage of the VM2.
Steven
24 Oct 08 at 1:47 pm
@Mike
What do you think of my comment above, regarding a rock slid resource to provide those overly-cautious/uninformed about how easy it is to keep users updated with the flash players, and stop worrying about the “flash player download percentage”?
Steven Hargrove
24 Oct 08 at 1:54 pm
I think the main reason as2 is faster and easier to develop the same thing is because we’re used to it. Its simple, clean and nice. Its the same as javascript - simple and thats why it takes off. There are idiosyncrasies, but look at what it takes to load an image in as3 - they made it more complicated. Why? It should be simpler in as3, still has a great api, but simpler. Not 10 classes to do a simple thing. I mean the as3 classes are java-like - but it loses a bit in the simplification of as2 - as 2 was like total freedom. Of course people who dont know how to write code or come from as1 backgrounds usually hack crap together.
When you have someone who has dev’d in java, has knowledge of design patterns and has a heavy design background as 2 just rocks because its simple and you can get a lot more design / code things done in less time. As3 is more cumbersome in the overcomplication of menial tasks I feel.
I also feel that as2 grows on you. as3 is trying to be a bit more like java - but the errors just kill me. I like exceptions, dont get me wrong. But when im trying to design some really creative shit in as3 its sometimes takes a lot more time to do simple things.
Some people might be confusing workflows as well, flex is awesome, but as 3 with flash is problematic in the simplicities. I guess its less “hack” but at the same time you want more freedom within design pattern guidelines … adobe is trying to handle the problem of as2 being called a kiddie language, but at the same time javascript and as2 are almost identical - i personally prefer as2 because of classes. More formal. But thats my two cents.
The workflow of as3 with flash needs to be better worked out. Also - whats with no real editor? I got to pay $500 for FDT when it should be part of flash cs3/cs4.
austin
24 Oct 08 at 1:56 pm
I do use as3 - but I try to stick to as2 within work guidelines because I know I can do some clean stuff in less time than if I did it in as3. If I was doing some intensive processing or 3d work then I would definitely use as3. Also the player penetration is just out enough that im going to start targeting for 9.0.45.
austin
24 Oct 08 at 1:59 pm
I wish I could get some AS2 work! I told my clients that I charge double for it. It would be painful to go back and work with it but can you say “easy money”? :-)
Seriously, I avoid opening the Flash IDE at all costs.
Flex/AS3 = happy/happy - joy/joy.
polyGeek
24 Oct 08 at 2:12 pm
AS1 and AS2 make me want to vomit as this point. Seriously. After AS3 they are unusable.
Joseph
24 Oct 08 at 2:13 pm
I use AS2 when I have to work any old projects. Everything new is AS3.
kevinv033
24 Oct 08 at 2:13 pm
For personal projects I work exclusively in AS3, and when I can convince my company’s clients that it’s worth it I do the same.
Most clients, though, request that the work be done in AS2, generally for the same reasons that have already been listed above.
ian
24 Oct 08 at 2:15 pm
After doing a couple of jobs in AS3, I reluctantly went back to AS2. There are too many bugs in too many versions of the Flash 9 player. In particular, I noticed the memory management problems, but I didn’t realize how bad they were before Grant Skinner’s blog post about it.
I’ll probably start using it again sometime after the second bug fix for FP 10.
Misc
24 Oct 08 at 2:21 pm
Whoops, I messed that up:
If: Flex/AS3 = happy/happy - joy/joy
then it’s like saying: Flex = 0. That’s no good.
How about: Flex/AS3 = happy + joy
That’s a little better.
polyGeek
24 Oct 08 at 2:26 pm
I get AS2 work only when I’ve been bad and the gods are punishing me. LOL.
I still have some legacy work with a few clients that’s AS2 but all new projects are AS3 only. I generally have no problems convincing any of my clients to support Flash Player 9.
John O
24 Oct 08 at 2:28 pm
I’m not a code snob, so whatever gets the job done quickest with minimal fuss, least lines of code, least hassle.
I’m agreed with Bobby, most scripting I’d do would be say a few dozen to a couple hundred lines, and I use AS2 all the way (95%) unless there’s a specific feature/performance boost required that is AS3 (e.g using something like papervision).
Each impossibly worded error message or workaround in AS3 = tripped up and googling for hours again, plus 10 lines of code where 2 or 3 would do before (is progress having to write more code not less?) and THE most useless error/compile messages of all time.
M Grant
24 Oct 08 at 2:40 pm
AS 2 in sometimes. if I worked with existence project that do it in AS 2.
Abdulaziz Al-Shetwi
24 Oct 08 at 2:52 pm
I run a Flash Lite company. Enough said.
Dale Rankine
24 Oct 08 at 3:01 pm
Viva AS1!
Ugur.-
24 Oct 08 at 3:08 pm
Mobile devices currently do not support AS3 content. Oftentimes clients have legacy code that has to be maintained in AS2 and cannot afford to port the project to AS3
iBrent
24 Oct 08 at 3:39 pm
When developing for ScaleForm (reverse engineered Flash plugin, ww.scaleform.com), it’s has got to be ActionScript 2…
And from time to time, I have to implement change request for my first RIA I made back in 2003 and that was in ActionScript 1 (good ol’ prototype “classes”).
Hans Van de Velde
24 Oct 08 at 3:41 pm
In the last year my projects have been approximately 60% AS3 and 40% AS2. All the marketing agencies that I contract with still target Flash Player 8 and want AS2 for websites and banners to achieve maximum audience reach. My more interesting projects are in AS3.
Bill Brown
24 Oct 08 at 3:53 pm
I should mention that I teach Flash at a local college where the typical student is more artist than programmer (they initially cringe at the thought of coding). I’ve found that AS3 tends to overwhelm them, whereas AS2 is much more approachable.
Bill Brown
24 Oct 08 at 3:56 pm
Is Adobe plan to end support of AVM 1.0 inside Flash Player in future?
Deden Ramadhan
24 Oct 08 at 4:10 pm
No AS1 and starting new project in AS3 but mostly still AS2 because of the existing legacy project work.
AS3 is cool and speedy but hard to turn away from AS2 work.
Tony Hsieh
24 Oct 08 at 4:25 pm
I find that many of the things that I could do easily with AS2 are not so easy to learn (i.e. levels on a movie clip, display list, and setting focus). Importing all the libraries is also time-consuming. I’m self-taught and use it in education, and find the learning curve time-intensive. Also, most school computers are not equipped with the most current Flash player.
Mike
24 Oct 08 at 5:03 pm
We started our project just before AS3 (it’s all AS2) and we would need to migrate our code over to AS3.
We would love too start using AS3 but there is A LOT of code.
We’re unable to estimate the amount of time involved, and have not found the time to research the migration efforts.
Any input, pointers, advice would be great.
Thanks Mesh
-SR
S Roberts
24 Oct 08 at 5:17 pm
Scaleform (www.scaleform.com) doesn’t support AS3.
Dr. Duder
24 Oct 08 at 6:02 pm
No. I do anything with as3, and if I can (have time) I port old stuff to as3. I think I don’t even remember as1 :)
funkyboy
24 Oct 08 at 6:02 pm
Flex3 / AS3 ;-) only
?Flex4 / AS4 ?soon?
alasef
24 Oct 08 at 9:36 pm
I agree with @bobby insofar as a very basic project is way faster to put together in AS2. The problem, of course, is when the project grows and then you have to kick yourself.
I only recently (well for 1 year now) started getting a lot of AS3. Now it seems like everything is AS3 and I prefer it. But, some projects take a very long time on the calendar and so I had some AS2 jobs that started years earlier.
I’m not 100% what qualifies as AS1 vs. AS2. Typing? Using classes? I mean, really, it’s pretty much the same thing underneath right?
Phillip Kerman
24 Oct 08 at 10:14 pm
@Deden
–
Is Adobe plan to end support of AVM 1.0 inside Flash Player in future?
–
Nope.
mike chambers
mesh@adobe.com
mikechambers
24 Oct 08 at 10:18 pm
We need a way to upgrade existing embedded swfs on other sites to as3 in a backwards compatible way.
If you have existing swfs out there that work with flash player 7 or 8 but want to upgrade without breaking those, there is no way.
Maybe you could add a way to load as3 swfs into as2 swfs so we can do the detection in the swf itself and then load a 2nd swf that is the actual content.
Geoff
24 Oct 08 at 10:22 pm
In a word: Flashpaper.
(PS: the only part of the MM-Adobe merger that totally sucked: getting rid of Flashpaper. Adobe bring it back, please, Acrobat doesn’t even come close.)
Joeflash
24 Oct 08 at 10:31 pm
Oh yeah, and AS1 for FMS server-side actionscript, which totally sucks. Don’t you guys think it’s time to upgrade FMS SSAS to AS3?
Joeflash
24 Oct 08 at 10:36 pm
Actually we are working with AS2 only on Flash Lite projects, but we are working a lots with Flex and AIR apps, so AS3 and MXML
luca mezzalira
25 Oct 08 at 12:49 am
Mike,
Yes, we still use AS2 for a number of projects because it’s economical to do so - we have a large legacy code library and developers who arent yet fully trained up in AS3 and because of that it’s much cheaper to get an AS2 project out the door.
We are building a new codebase and build system in AS3 and have used it for two major projects, but migration is a slow process.
Ian
IanT
25 Oct 08 at 12:59 am
I use AS2 only when supporting old projects. I absolutly hate doing it and am in the process of porting long running projects to AS3.
AS3 for me is quicker, more structured but most importantly much easier to maintain. That said AS2 has its uses, mainly banner ad’s…
Matthew Lloyd
25 Oct 08 at 3:04 am
I’ve read through most the comments here - most people who read this blog are going to be developers so it is heavily biased (I found this link via Flash Magazine). I would say I am half designer / half developer - as such I want the freedom to quickly mock up ideas with code… AS3 simply doesn’t allow that - it’s far too strict, having to constantly import libraries, write 3 times the amount of code to do such simple things.
I’m still very comfortable in AS2 and work very fast on small to medium projects - if AS3 could retain a lot of the more commonly used functions of AS2 without the extra code I would consider “upgrading”. Until that day I simply can’t see me ever being converted (I remember when Macromedia removed the script assist in Flash 7 - I simply stuck with 2006 as I needed something I can quickly work with when in designing).
Stephen
25 Oct 08 at 3:12 am
I have been migrating to AS3 and really like the power of it. I honestly don’t think there are enough “affordable” resources for learning the deeper subjects of AS3. I’m not good yet with the use of classes to replace timeline scripts. I wish Adobe (or someone) would provide, even at a nominal fee, comprehensive training. I tried Lynda but it was surface knowledge at best…the basics. I have to scour the forums and blogs for my needs.
stevo devo
25 Oct 08 at 3:18 am
I use as3 exclusively now. In as2 my work was split 40/60 development/debugging - now it’s more like 80/20 or higher. I know what I’d rather be doing.
owen
25 Oct 08 at 3:27 am
FMS supports only AS1 for server-side scripting so… Hopefully FMS 3.5 or perhaps 4.0 will support AS3.
Roman Swoszowski
25 Oct 08 at 3:31 am
Occasionally I have to develop on a machine that only has Flash 8 on it. So for compatibility.
Ante Vrli
25 Oct 08 at 4:08 am
I use 50% AS2 and 50% AS3. The main reason for using AS2 is for maintenance of old projects, banners and building applications with 3rd party projectors.
Luis Neng
25 Oct 08 at 4:26 am
If i have to prototype something in a couple of hours, as2 still has the edge in development speed. Only because I’ve been using as2 for years, and as3 for months.
Recently i had to build something for an online interactive magazine platform, eveything gets pulled into an as2 wrapper, so only as2 works.
Those are the exceptions, as3 is so much better organised and code execution speed is a dream.
John
25 Oct 08 at 4:42 am
Funny that Macromedia created AS.
But yeah 3 now!
Darth Guybrush
25 Oct 08 at 4:45 am
AS2 for old and new projects. I still learning AS3 to use on my future project in Flash. In Flex I use the AS3.
Marcos
25 Oct 08 at 4:47 am
We have only just started using AS3 on commercial projects, but the important aspect for us isn’t about the language version its about what features we can build on top of a particular version of flash player, if a feature requires FP9 or above then we will use AS3.
Our clients are mainly schools in the UK so the uptake of new player versions is slower than ‘in the wild’, so we have to provide a good reason for targeting a higher player version, i.e. a feature which would really improve the application but which can only be achieved by using a newer player.
And of course there is the issue of having an extensive AS2 codebase which would take a long time to port to AS3, so the actual cost of implementing an app in AS3 would be far higher than AS2. Often our clients ask for new applications in terms of existing applications, ‘we want it like App X just change the graphics, take these features out and add in A,B and C’, so building that from our AS2 codebase is obviously the quickest and most cost-effective solution.
now, if there was a tool for automatically translating AS2 to AS3 then that might help speed up the migration. :)
Martin
25 Oct 08 at 4:48 am
AS1 & AS2 because I am focused on mobile development.
But I plan to dive into AS3 soon as I have a good application that needs porting…
Liz Myers
25 Oct 08 at 5:01 am
Sorry Mike - what I meant earlier is that I have a compelling reason to learn AS3 because I have an application that needs porting and is perfect for AIR.
Liz Myers
25 Oct 08 at 5:07 am
First thing, I work with Flash Lite.
Second thing, AS3 editor in Flash CS3/4 is nonsense, and I never get used to with Flex Builder. There are still only Flash developers out there :/
// chall3ng3r //
chall3ng3r
25 Oct 08 at 5:20 am
Hi,
I still write as2 because it gets stuff done and runs everywhere. A lot of open source projects in Flash have never got around to using AS3, and they have no commercial equivalent. See http://silex-ria.org, for example.
Ariel
ariel sommera-klein
25 Oct 08 at 5:47 am
We believed in the Flash platform before the concept was even popular. As a result, we have built a framework over the years which would take at least a year and a half to port to AS3 if at all possible since it also encompasses the use of products like FlashPaper.
Even then, if we did get it ported, by the time we are done, we would probably be out of business.
Flasher developer since ‘98.
Bert
25 Oct 08 at 5:55 am
[...] dos mais importantes evangelistas do Flash está perguntando no seu blog oficial se os desenvolvedores ainda estão usando as versões anteriores da linguagem do Flash: O [...]
Você ainda programa com ActionScript 2 ou ActionScript 1? - Profissionais de Web
25 Oct 08 at 6:01 am
Many ad networks don’t support AS3/F9 yet. We’re doing AS3 projects but still do banners in AS2.
BJ
25 Oct 08 at 6:35 am
At work we still use flash 8 because we have not hadcany new contract money to purchase cs3/4.
However, I have cs3 at home, and I must say, though I know this will be an unpopular remark, that as3 way over complicates simple tasks. Making a drag and drop takes 3 times the amount of work for instance.
I love as3 for AIR projects and the langauge improvements are priceless, but a great deal of the simplicity is as2 was lost, which is rather disappointing.
Greg Ferrell
25 Oct 08 at 7:19 am
I’m still using AS2 for a lot of things. As much as I really prefer AS3, a lot of my clients have in-house people who ultimately end up responsible for the projects I turn over to them. Lots of them are designers more than developers (meaning it took them forever to get a grasp of AS2… and AS3 is still greek to them) so the spec will call for AS2
Jay Charles
25 Oct 08 at 9:01 am
Because my site targets Wii and mobile browsers. CS4 can compile to AS2/Flash7 projects just fine.
John Hattan
25 Oct 08 at 9:27 am
Having just used as3 for my first major commercial project (i’ve done a few personal ones but nothing on this scale) I have to say that it was a far buggier experience than even the shockingly buggy as2. As a former java developer it amazes me that concepts as simple as class hierarchy simply dont work as expected in as3 without doing a bunch of silly hackery.
The performance increase is really the only thing that will keep me coming back to as3.
Dan
25 Oct 08 at 9:41 am
We use an application framework in AS2. The switch between AS1 and AS2 takes 1 1/2 years. Now we start to code a new application framework in AS3.
Ipxlan
25 Oct 08 at 9:50 am
One benefit of AS3 that people don’t seem to mention too often… and something I only recently really noticed–is how much more reliable the code I produce in AS3 is. Not like it’s bug free, but it’s way better and takes less time to test. Maybe I’m just always getting better but I think it’s more the verbose errors and strict compile rules that help.
Phillip Kerman
25 Oct 08 at 10:51 am
ScaleForm GFX only supports AS2 at this time ;)
Ryguy
25 Oct 08 at 1:03 pm
I still use AS1 and AS2 as most of my projects are mobile. To be perfectly honest I find AS3 very similar to Java and if I have to learn new language features and a new API it might as well be Java - especially when working on mobile apps.
AS3 might just be the language that makes me switch from the Flash platform.
Bryan Rieger
25 Oct 08 at 1:48 pm
I have been stuck with AS2 mainly because our clients only supports Flash player 7 or 8. Another reason is thhat the framework we work within is currently AS2 based, howewer that is about to change now. Also, our inhouse team are not up to speed in AS3 yet.
Personally I´m about to make the switch to AS3 during the following weeks, finally! Flex will have to wait until early next year though…
Bjarne
25 Oct 08 at 3:30 pm
Damn! @phillip beat me.
@Dan AS2 Shockingly buggy? Silly Hackery? Without some references you comment is FUD.
I am working exclusively in AS3 but others around me have yet to make the jump even to using class based development. It’s a widening gap between people who use AS to script animations (because they don’t care/are lazy/don’t have the time/don’t know what they don’t know), and people who treat it as a programming language and like to leverage it for their art or applications.
Randy Troppmann
25 Oct 08 at 5:54 pm
Only if an old AS2 project needs updating. Or in very rare cases, like for the mobile market. But boy, do I loathe AS2 now!
sascha/hdrs
25 Oct 08 at 10:49 pm
[...] Mike Chambers posted the question on his site: Are you still using ActionScript 2? (or 1)? [...]
Mike Chambers asks: Are you still using ActionScript 2? (or 1)? - Helmut Granda
25 Oct 08 at 10:50 pm
I prefer to code in pre AS1 - I fire up Flash four and do all my coding in a tiny tiny window, using lots of tell targets :)
daviddoull
26 Oct 08 at 1:45 am
It’s nice to see such passionate responses from the community, I’m particularly interested in people fighting the AS2 corner regarding the easy of use factor and I’m going to go for a rather controversial response.
Basically people have been spoiled by methods such as .loadMovie in AS2. If you want to rely on code that does it all for you then your missing the intricate details of how that operation works (catching errors, handling events etc). If you want to do some fast prototyping then build a framework that that allows you to do so, ActionScript is a language not a ‘coding wizard’. In particular the Flex Builder IDE and the FDT plug-in for eclipse practically eradicates the time it takes to write one line as apposed to 10 lines.
I guess I’m just grumpy because I hate maintaining AS2 code, I’ve been spoiled by AS3.
alex
26 Oct 08 at 5:36 am
AS3 is the way to go, its super fast, very structural and easy to learn. in addition its the future of flash, i can now explore the power of GPU and dynamic sound. not forgetting the new drawing API is going to make a huge impact with 3D in flash.
noj
26 Oct 08 at 6:18 am
I run a small advertising studio together with my wife.
I come from the illustration side of the business.
When started I had a companion who was writing the scripts.
At one point this guy left and I had to learn the action scripting.
Back in 2004 mx time I still recall the time it took to get somewhere with it.
Frankly I don’t have the time to invest in stepping from AS2 to AS3 in the near future.
Having said that, I’d like to and will sometime.
So for now its AS2.
nls
26 Oct 08 at 9:06 am
I’m currently looking for a flash job and anything which even mentions AS2 gets skipped over.
Switching to AS3 was the best thing I ever did (dev wize anyway). I like the modern era and I want to stay here.
I do this cos I enjoy it and AS3 is more fun, anyone who can’t see my work just aint in my target audience. haha
All this talk about “legacey” fluff, pft, 98% is good enough for me. Go Flash Player Team! bring on AS4!
DoofMoof
26 Oct 08 at 9:22 am
To support “legacy” products, and when the client ask for FP8 :P.
i can`t use the AIR because of the clients, they don`t know how to install.
Work with technology in brazil is not easy :P , when you want to do something better, you can`t because the clients are not smart enough to use the application.
Armando Leopoldo Keller
26 Oct 08 at 9:49 am
I have used a mixture of AS1, 2 & 3 this year:
AS3 / Flex for new standalone projects.
AS3 / CS3 for a website project running 3D code
AS2 / FL8 for a website project similar to a previous one so reusing a lot of existing code/
For my new job, I have taken over a project that uses PDA’s and Linux for an application that shares code. Most of the code is written in AS1 style code using AS2 lib’s. I am looking at porting the Linux app over to AS3, but still need to support the PDA.
I don’t have a problem with AS1 / AS2, the code we have works and it is easier for other people to understand and work with if I am not there. To port the system to AS3 will require a rewrite of a lot of stuff and because it is mainly lots of buttons in different pages + drag n drop, it’s going to take a while to make sure the system works - we have major concern about memory leaks / CPU as this is a kiosk application. So, for now, until dust settles, the current system will continue with AS2.
I like AS3, but it is a huge leap from the AS1 & AS2 days, even for someone who tried to write OO code with this stuff. I think people will use whatever they are comfortable with - why buy a new pair of trousers if the old ones still fit and you like them…
Glen
26 Oct 08 at 10:08 am
talent pool is larger, can use older code libraries we’ve built. Is easier to peer review problems.
ca
26 Oct 08 at 10:47 am
If Flash lite would actually be based on AS3, I would not have to. Adobe?
(Opinion: Having to maintain 2 code bases because Lite does not get the attention from Adobe it needs to succeed sucks)
G. Bauer
26 Oct 08 at 4:03 pm
Sadly yes I still use AS2 to support projects and applications that people will not give me time to recode to AS3. And to make it worse it is getting harder to remember why I did what I did in AS2 since AS3 is such a pleasure to use compared to ‘the old days’ :)
Peter Witham
26 Oct 08 at 7:21 pm
Yes, unfortunately, either following client’s requirements, or to accommodate team workers, banners, or for upgrading old sites that were done in AS1/2.
Nicolas Noben
26 Oct 08 at 8:10 pm
boss+client+mobile
katopz
26 Oct 08 at 9:31 pm
I never got into AS2 because it essentially compiles to the same bytecode as AS1 and I felt I had more control over AS1.
I also never used components because they were bloated, buggy and were practically unusable in a subsequent IDE release.
It was a bit of a struggle switching to AS3 but it eventually paid off. The engine is a lot faster and my applications are more robust. However, doing a project requires much more discipline and planning. In this sense, it isn’t suited for rapid prototyping anymore.
Also, I am one of those people that does projects in pure actionscript, so developing a project using the Flash IDE is a joke. The actionscript editor hasn’t been updated much since Flash 5 and I use FlashDevelop for coding and then compile with the Flash IDE.
In AS1/2, you were able to preload assets by putting them on different frames. I agree that with AS3, you can load most assets dynamically into objects and reuse them, but there is still no way to do that with fonts.
There should be a Font class which can load font files and, more importantly, load compiled subsets of a font file (which could be perhaps exported from the Flash IDE or using a separate tool)
Otherwise, I am glad the Flash engine went through a complete rewrite because the original one had become a big mess of hacks, unsuitable for any serious work.
I only use AS1 for one project which I have to support, but event that will soon be rewritten (sadly, as a .NET application)
philtre
27 Oct 08 at 3:31 am
It’s also a sadly YES for AS2 but a proud NO for AS1.
I got some project where the client works with design studios that are in a galaxy far far away from AS3 so all their works are only in AS2, so we must keep working that way.
There’s also a money problem : got some projects that runs under AS2 but some client don’t want to spend money for rebuild them in AS3 (but they still continue to ask fo the new AS3 features for their sites :D ).
loneken79
27 Oct 08 at 4:15 am
Using AS2 because I have ‘the fear’ of AS3 - looking for a good opportunity/suitable project to use as a first step to AS3.
Is there a ‘best’ way to start? What should my first (tentative) step be…?
Monrobot
27 Oct 08 at 4:32 am
Yes, on legacy projects that were originally coded in AS1/AS2. Newer projects have been done using AS3 (both in Flash and now in Flex) though if Flash 7 (or 8 for the bitmap effects) is all that’s required I’m still comfortable working in AS2.
I’d love to get (and hopefully we will in a follow up post) some insight into what’s behind this question.
Jason Langdon
27 Oct 08 at 5:22 am
Also using actionscript 2 because of clients requirements like many others developpers.
For example, I was in meeting with a bank customer and asked which version of flash player should our work be published and I was answered flash 6 :< !!!
I could not move my lips as i was afraid :) !
There’s a gap between IT departments requirements and what can be done
Stéphane
27 Oct 08 at 5:49 am
Aside from legacy code libraries and thousands of eLearning assets at work, and a gov’t IT department, we’ve got:
ScaleForm GFX
Wii
any Flash Lite device,
including Chumby
I would love to go to AS3, just get it in Flash Lite and I’ll make my peace.
lyau
27 Oct 08 at 6:13 am
Because I’m job less and companies want me to have both AS2 and 3. Stupid agency people who phone me up say “Can I use flash?” or even worse “Can I do Adobe?” have no idea between AS1, 2 and 3. I interviewed with one giant internet umbrella company recently, who started with a C and ended with a Net, said I needed to have AS2 because they had only just three months ago coded their video player in AS2 and saw no business reason for going to AS3. I ask you….
Frank Bradshaw
27 Oct 08 at 6:13 am
AS3, sure!! We are (sandbox.com.br) developing rich internet applications and games for multitouch tables using Flash and Flex. We start programming AS3 based on OOP about a one year and now a can say that we are very productive!! :)
Cristiano
27 Oct 08 at 7:34 am
My question is, why would I switch to AS3?
Faster code execution? Sure, but it takes me 2-3x longer to develop.
The ability to do a lot more with the language? But how do I use it?
Fully object oriented? But why do I have to import 5 classes to do a few simple actions. In fact, why do I have to import any flash-specific classes at all? (IE - anything in the flash. package, as well as anything in the fl. and the mx.)
Regardless, I am working on making the switch for functionality sake.
The problem I am coming across is that there is no steadfast method for using both AS2 and AS3 together in the same project. I have an eLearning interface built in AS2 that I recently ported to AS3. But I can’t make it backwards-compatible. You can use LocalConnection, but this is a “hacky” method, and works correctly only about 1/3 of the time. The other 2/3 of the time, it mostly crashes the player completely, and every once in a while it just doesn’t work, but lets the player continue running.
Take a hint from the design/development world, and make things easy for designers, while leaving the more difficult stuff for those that would use it. Stop removing functionality that makes things faster and easier, stop removing components. Start beefing up the Flash code view, make flash play nice with flex, make the AVM1 and AVM2 able to play nice together, without errors, without crashing, add new components. These are the things that are necessary to get the world to switch to AS3, at least thats how I see it.
Ross
27 Oct 08 at 7:45 am
No, but I have to leave project in order to stop.
#1 Reason why project was trapped in AS1. Because of a lack of search tools.
The entire project was pretty much created with dynamic creation of movieclips. So Flash’s “search tool” was useless. The application was also huge.
For years I just wanted a simple “Find” tool in which I could tell the tool to search a given .fla file’s ActionScript for a string “foo”. And it would report every instance of that string.
filename.fla
root.frame4.line41: “foo”
movieclip.frame1.line3: “foo”
Had I had this simple tool, I could have migrated the app to AS3. Instead the app was a nightmare to upgrade because I did not know all instances of code.
Jason The Saj
27 Oct 08 at 7:47 am
We are using AS2 for a lot of web projects where we need to push creativity with no compromise. We was born as Flash developer and AS2 is grown up with us during the years. We can’t say the same for AS3 who was released and pushed in without a gradual change.
Flex and AS3 is used in our agency (by ex Java programmer) for web and intranet applications, where we are asked to be solid and safe.
We have a creativity approach at new web projects and we feel more free to create with AS2.
Cristian Galletti
27 Oct 08 at 8:31 am
@Ross
–
My question is, why would I switch to AS3?
Faster code execution? Sure, but it takes me 2-3x longer to develop.
The ability to do a lot more with the language? But how do I use it?
–
Could you elborate on this. A number of people here have said that it takes them 2 x 3 times longer to do something in ActionScript 3 as opposed to ActionScript 3.
What is taking so much longer? I know there are a couple of APis that take a few more lines of code in AS3, but is that it? Those APis are causing your development to take 2 x 3 times longer?
I would really appreciate some more info on this…
–
Fully object oriented?
–
You do realize that you can do procedural code in AS3, just as you can in AS2? i.e. just because you are using AS3, you dont have to write object oriented code.
mike chambers
mesh@adobe.com
mikechambers
27 Oct 08 at 9:17 am
Switched to AS3 a few months ago. First hated it, now it’s oke. My tought about it is:
AS2 is for designers
AS3 is for developers
I started using AS about 8 years ago, with no programming background (i’m a designer). Loved it because it was easy to learn, and it allowed me to make mistakes.
AS3 is a lot harder to learn, you have to write a lot more code, and it’s very strict. I understand the reason for this, and in the end it will be a better way of programming. But for a designer like me it’s mostly just a pain in the ass to always have to deal with errors when you’re not cleaning up listeners properly, or trying to access undefined variables and stuff.
Youri
27 Oct 08 at 9:17 am
A big chunk of our work is required to be FP8/AS2 by our clients. But any internal project is Flex/Air and AS3.
We also do a fair bit of kiosk work which is all AS3.
Alex
27 Oct 08 at 9:18 am
We occasionally are forced to use AS 2 for banner ads being run by some online publications, due to their requirements.
Our Flash banner ads on our own site have been programmed in AS 3 for the past 6 months. We see in our web tracking reports that most users have at least Flash Player 9.
Joyce
Joyce Croker
27 Oct 08 at 9:20 am
I think the 2-3x issue is more about folks have snippets and solutions built up over the years. So when they make the transition to AS3, they have to reinvest time and effort in updating those “tried and true solutions”.
Chris Griffith
27 Oct 08 at 9:26 am
People who say that AS3 coding takes 2 or 3 times longer than AS2 probably do not count the debugging time as “programming”. In my experience all those silent errors and the forgiving way of AS2 in general costs you so much more time in the long run that the tiny initial overhead it takes to write AS3 classes is easily compensated.
Mario Klingemann
27 Oct 08 at 9:30 am
I maintain that AS3 is not harder to learn than AS2, there’s just a fear of going from elegance in one language to bumbling beginner in another.
Most AS developers aren’t comp-sci majors. They’re designers or artists who fell into coding because it provides a gateway for beautiful interactivity. AS at it’s most basic is easy to understand because you can SEE the result.
I would imagine there was a similar fear when the switch was made from tellTarget to dot syntax, and that if/when ECMAscript ever moves to a more elegant object oriented approach, the adoption rate will be just as slow.
Inevitably, the language will take hold though. The learning curve is nothing more than perception. It takes a week or two or three to feel like you know the AS3 “version” of how to do something in AS2, and then you never forget. And then it quickly becomes apparent that the “easier” language is AS3.
Jamie Kosoy
27 Oct 08 at 9:32 am
Mario’s comment++
as3 does take a bit longer to type. not 2-3 times longer. maybe 1.5 times longer for some simple things. but comparable times for larger stuff.
and debug times is much less.
Keith Peters
27 Oct 08 at 9:43 am
I updated an OPC project from 2->3 about a year ago to learn 3. It was very annoying to make changes and writing events in particular, and all the object typing, seemed cluttered and redundant.
Then I went back to an AS 2.0 OPC project. Wow - I hope I never have to use 2 again. It was like going from AS 2.0 back to Lingo (Director) with all the obscure Movieclip keywords and Actionscript tucked away in random places.
The biggest advantage of AS 3.0 for me is being able to deal with OPC (Other People’s Code)
Ditto to Mario Klingemann - OPC runtime errors are the worst!
David J McClelland
27 Oct 08 at 9:56 am
[...] ???????? ?????????? ???????? ? ???? ????????????: “??????????? ?? ?? ActionScript 2 ??? 1? ? ???? ??, ?? ???????“. ??? ????? ???? ?????????, ???-?????? ?? ???? [...]
?????? ?????? ???????????? ? Flash Player 10 API — Garbage Collector
27 Oct 08 at 10:30 am
There are many factors that go into the “2-3x longer,” when I state it anyways.
First off, there is the added overhead (and also added filesize) of many extra lines. I have a very simple application that I wrote, with a button that takes you to a different frame. What would be 3 lines of code (if you include the close curly bracket) in AS2, is now 4 lines of code. No big whoop, right. Except the AS3 is 112 characters (at the most basic), while the AS2 is 23 characters. That is a 5x difference. So, right there, developing the code for that very basic application of just a simple button click with a gotoAndPlay action takes 5x longer. (bad example, I know, but the point is there)
Secondly, debugging time. I spend more time debugging a basic application in AS3 then I ever did in AS2. I have come across those basic errors in AS2 that fail silently and are a pain in the rear to debug, but in AS3 I come across runtime errors much more frequently, and for things that shouldn’