Unfortunately, there is nothing much that can be done to enhance AS2 in a similar fashion to AS3.

I think it would be nice to update aspects of it to include some of the functionality of AS3 (e.g. addChild vs getNextHighestDepth but without forcing an addChild - any object created in AS2 should be automatically added to the top layer).

I find myself constantly jumping back to AS2 for smaller projects. But I have found with large complex projects (one’s that would require large chunky sections of code anyway) AS3 is far superior… well, at least if the flash player wasn’t so horribly buggy. I’ve had more issues with player bugs in AS3 than I ever did in AS2

Complaining about having to learn a single product as it evolves over a decade? Try doing what I had to do, learn 16 different programming languages to put food on the table and keep a consulting business running. That is the essential difference apparently between Flash “designers” (I seriously doubt tha majority of Flash users out there are trained designers, I would prefer you accept the term hobbyists or fledgling scripters at the very least) and professional programmers.

I have no Flash background. In fact, I don’t have a computer science degree either. I taught myself all 16 computer languages, the first few while I was sorking BS jobs right out of the army. Now I have looked at Flash over the past couple of years and liked what you could produce with it, but I didn’t like HOW you produced those cute little animations with the product. Also, my core client list aren’t just scooping buckets of money at people for banner ads. Maybe 6-8 years ago, not today. Today, the web is growing up, not just Flash, but the web, and growing up means consuming data. It means not just pretty little photo galleries and slideshows, but rich media accessing valuable data and connecting the dots between advanced user interfaces with advanced back-end access to the client’s real assets: their data.

I am playing the worlds smallest violin right now for those who say they are strugglng to learn AS3. I am only willing to accept Flash as a real viable tool now that AS3 exists. Now the game is getting interesting. But do you really think, any of you, that all “hard-core” (let’s use the word professional, shall we?) programmers were born with our minds loaded with advanced OOP principals embedded in a chip in our heads? We were preloaded with language grammers in the womb? Sorry to break your bubble, but all of us had to work at it. Work seems like a dirty word when you can make a piece of text fly across the stage with a few mouse-clicks. But work it is, so get used to our world. Don’t paint yourselves as underdogs. Programmers generally do not have great social lives because we have to struggle with ever evolving technological changes year in and year out, learning the latest versions of a lot of new technologies at once, and practicing those technologies, and while we are at it, delivering useable products to our clients, not leaning on a foosball table all day. It is hard work, it pays very well and it is a fact of life for us. My heart doesn’t bleed because VB6 programmers haven’t taken the last 6-7 years learn a new version of their single bread and butter tool, nor does it bleed for those of you who want Flash to remain a toy language (which is what VB was originally considered). I am excited that finally Adobe is finally inviting us developers to the party. Frankly, I think they, and you, will benefit because with programmers, serious programmers, there is a huge work ethic you can depend on to use any technology to the max, to tell you what it wrong with it and often actually help you make it better, and to make the technology actually push the envelope (and for the record I don’t think making a carousel is pushing the envelope). If you don’t like that statement, tough. I don’t liking working 17 hour days, but I do it. The rewards are well worth it.

Look on the bright side, if you don’t want to become really advanced with the product as it evolves, do what the original VB programmers did. Let workhorse programmers step onto the field and write a lot of prebuilt kick-ass new add-ons that you can just pick up, include in your projects and make yourselves look like wizards all over again. To be fair, it isn’t just Flash people who whine like this, there are many less-than-motivated developers in every language/product who don’t like to scale the learning curve that some of us are forced to do to remain viable. Its only because you haven’t walked in our shoes that you want to call us elitists, or suggest that we have superior attitudes.

The fact is, programming is hard for everyone when you first encounter something new. Even hitters with nearly two decades of experience struggle, as I and many others I know can attest.

So because Adobe is allowing its products to grow up, and to provide a reason for we grunt programmers to finally give Flash a serious look is only fair, and only good for the larger community. Nobody cares how hard it is for you to jump from ActionScript 2 to ActionScript 3. Clients will just call you a whiner and give your check to someone else. No one cares how hard it is for me to spend my nights and weekends to learn C#, Javascript and 3 different JS frameworks, the .NET runtime, keep up with evolving CSS, XHTML, ASP.NET and now ActionScript 3. Suck it up. Most of you only have one language to re-learn.

In the future, if you can’t get your hands around the lingua franca of OOP in at least one language, then you will be delivering pizzas. But somebody has to deliver pizzas. It is what it is. OOP, RIA, rich media apps connecting to corporate data, musclar appications are now and will continue to be cash cows. Either you want in or you want out. If you want in, crack a book. Watch a few a video tutorials. Write some code. Give it your best shot. If you were smart enough to make a lame-ass scripting language like [insert all pre-AS3 versions here] ActionScript produce impressive works of animated art, then you are smart enough to learn OOP. It isn’t all that hard folks. It is just different than what you are used to. Stop complaining, and start studying. Because I can tell you this from watching this sort of thing play out time and again, you are not going to stop technology from advancing just because you are lazy. Ever hear of Clipper? dBase? TurboPascal? PAL? I didn’t think so. They don’t really exist in any meaningful form anymore. And people who clung to those languages like grim death rather than embrace change found themselves left behind and playing the victim, and consequently out of the game now.

Seriously, how can you enjoy technology without embracing change? That is the name of the game. Don’t think you are going to sit on your precious code base for the next 10 years and the money is just going to flow to you. I have written my own propriety frameworks, and bodies of code over and over again, on average every 3-4 years as long as I have been programming. You do it to save time, and milk it for as long as it is worth, but you don’t do it expecting to ride them forever and that the ravages of time will pass you by. You have to be nimble, flexible and work as hard as the rest of us if you want to have your slice of of the pie.

There is no difference between hard-core programmers and hard-core designers, by the way. If you are hard-core anything, it means you have an “A” game. Having an A game, simply means you work to push your skills, to keep the blades sharp.

Suck it up and get busy. Best of luck. Like us or not, we are on the field with you now.

In my opinion, there are a lot of things that actionscript/flash cannot do out of the box like easy form serialization, application/website scaffolding, more than basic string manipulation, etc.

I am looking for a library/framework that provides a base of code that takes all the plumbing off my hands, Can any of you guys point me in the right direction?

Any reply is appreciated

email[dot]rafa[at]gmail[dot]com

Absolutely agree, extremely well put. “Java dudes - Back off”

It takes a lot of guts to do what you did.

Well done Mate!

http://blog.projectx4.com/2008/01/29/dear-adobe/

As Aral pointed out, this can be done in AS1 using prototypes if you must, but as you pointed out, developing with Flash as a language platform, rather than an animation tool with some coding capability is the difference between producing something that can be extended, improved and reused with ease, or producing something that looks great, but you’d likely have forgotten what the hell you did six months down the line.

This isn’t just me thinking this, it’s most of the programming world! Adobe included.

It’s a little extreme to suggest that if you don’t adhere to frameworks or design patterns, you will obsolete yourself. Good ideas can come from anywhere. The ‘holier than thou’ attitude is damaging to the industry because it only discourages newcomers from contributing.

Jamie

As for the other side perspective, though. The way things are moving in the Flash world, I’m starting to think that embedded code AS users will need to grasp full OO (or at least as full as it allows) programming in Flash in order to stay concurrent with client requirements. People are getting savvy about what Flash can do, now. And the general trend is that those coders who embed AS into MovieClips and whatnot are the ones that’ll not be able to utilize much of the Flash capabilities. As such, they’ll miss out on work, too. It’s not that I’m an evangelist pushing patterns or OO programming, I’m just pointing out that ActionScript is becoming - or has already become - a true programming language, so it really does need to be used as one. I just want to make sure those embedded AS’ers get a foothold in the future of Flash before they lose their footing.