Actionscript 3 Sandbox

AS3 brings the core language aspects of AS2 into complianace with ECMAScript standard (the international standardized programming language for scripting).

• http://www.flashandmath.com/
• http://www.learningactionscript3.com/2009/06/30/as3-tips-tricks-and-experiments/#more-61
• http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash/quickstart/creating_class_as3/
• interesting collection of as3 classes
• http://www.bytearray.org/?page_id=82

Basics of AS3

OPTION F9 == Actions Panel

• The difference between AS2 and AS3:

AS2:
my_MC.createTextField("instance_name", 10,0,0 Stage.width, 22);
my_MC.attachMovie("MC_name", "moviename_mc, this.getNextHighestDepth());
10,0,0,Stage.width == dimensions
22 == depth

Versus AS3:
var myText:TextField = new TextField();
var myMC:MovieClip = new MovieClip();
now in AS3 you dont have to createTextField or attachMovie, and you can define all the variables later. 

• select the property (highlighted in blue in the Actions panel), and press F1 to see a help menu telling you about what values the property can have.
• strings must be in quotation marks (var userName:<DataType> = "Data";)
• you assign data type to the variable so you dont lose track of what it is.
• trace(variableName);
• trace("long text comment");
• function thing():void - the void means no return argument

• function moveObj(thing:MovieClip):void 

{ thing.y -= 50; // mc moves 50px up thing.rotation += 45; // mc rotates 45 degrees right } moveObj(thing1_mc);

• function moveObj(thing:MovieClip, movement:Number, rotationAmount:Number):void 

{thing.y -= movement; // mc moves 50px up thing.rotation += rotationAmount; // mc rotates 45 degrees right }

moveObj(thing1_mc, 50, 45);

• function moveObj():Number		// the number here defines what kind of thing is returned

{ thing1_mc.y -= 50; thing1_mc.scaleY = 2; return thing1_mc.y; }

border2_mc.y = moveObj();

• events must have listeners