AS2 is simpler for artists/animators like me

It’s more forgiving towards artists like me who have absolutely no prior knowledge in scripting. As I recall, Flash was created so that artists/animators can have a fair share in the internet boom. Back then, Macromedia changed everything, I was able to learn programmming–in a flash. It was SIMPLE as it’s supposed to be friendly towards us.

Then Adobe stepped-in and took us to a new direction. Forget about the artists–creating applications is where the money’s at, right? As an animator, we create animations using the timeline. As an animator/programmer, I need to actually see the elements that I am coding. Why? because being mainly an artist, I need to be visual. Now, you expect us to forget the timeline just because it’s not advisable anymore for use in your AS3?

Hello Adobe, we are your market too!

Let me re-iterate: I am artist who now (thanks to old Flash) can program. I have no formal training in programming but learned AS2 on the fly. I was able to create a simple game with AS2.

Adobe has forgotten what made Flash cool. Thanks Adobe. I want Macromedia back, or at least a competitor that will cater towards hybrid (artist/animator/programmer) people like me.

Also, many methods developed in AS2 sped the process of development because there was less strictness, but because of less strictness the process of debugging was longer.

–
The code:
private function setString(value:String):void {
_aString = value;
}
generates a warning that “value” might not be a String
–

I dont get that warning in Flash Pro. Where are you seeing it?

mike

I develop faster in AS3. I no longer work in AS2.

Mike’s question is somewhat difficult to answer because learning AS3 requires an initial commitment to transition (possibly perceived as long) but the time-saving benefits then come quickly.

I found AS3 easier to work with partly because of the required structure, partly because the in-depth mechanisms of the language are more exposed. These two aspects make it easier to work on large projects (or break down difficult problems into small chunks) and to communicate with other developers. AS3 made me a better coder and better communicator.

I also teach a graduate course to students who are not necessary natural developers (if at all) so I understand the issue of how to explain to the unfamiliar audience. I make no assumption on what the students know and explain everything in simple common-language terms. I use metaphors to relate programming concepts to real life if necessary.

Video tutorials are great but time-consuming and often basic and not abstract enough. Blogs are very helpful because it is a place of many brains working together and it is written as a conversation but only answer specific problems. The Adobe documentation is pretty detailed but is targeted at coders (it would be helpful to have more sample code).

To help people to transition to AS3, what is missing are simple explanations of fundamental building blocks using common language. No assumption should be made that the reader already knows anything.

As an example, I typed “Event” in the help and this is what I got “The Event class is used as the base class for the creation of Event objects, which are passed as parameters to event listeners when an event occurs.”

Ugh, this assumed that the reader already has a lot of knowledge of many other fundamental concepts. What about a simple addition such as “this is the fundamental means of COMMUNICATION between the various parts of your program. For it to happen, it requires two partners, one to announce that the event occurs (EventDispatcher) and one to listen (EventListener) so it can act on it. An event can be many things such as a mouseEvent, data received over a network or one that you created yourself.

Thanks.

i’m just getting started with actionscript… I found this site while i was searching for the pros or cons of 2.0 of 3.0.

Cause i bought a book of actionscript 2.0 and now i bought those tutorials… But from what i read it’s best to start with 3.0?

1) As long as it is cost effective.
2) We want to reuse the projects in the past, why would I want to do a new port over to AS3?
3) We enough projects under our belt, going into AS3 is a risk we are not willing to take now.

I soooo want to get into AS3; I really mean it. It’s just that I am just too busy fixing my current projects than going into it.

I am very frustrated. Either that, get me a new job where I can use AS3, Flex, and Flash CS3 / CS4. That would be nice as long as it is comparable to my current pay scale and vacation schedule where I am working at. Silly, but I’m stuck where I am. Eventually, we might get there, but not now.

DJ