How complicated is ActionScript?

Drez

I wasn't sure if I should post here or H/A but...well, I'll try here.

I'm thinking of learning ActionScript. I'm not what you would call a savvy animator, but I have a decent programming background (I know how to write loop-the-loops and pointer at people and I'm being facetious but I'm a decent programmer really).

I'm also a fairly quick study. I know it's hard to quantify without really knowing me, but how long might it take to learn robust game-oriented programming with ActionScript from scratch? How complex/daunting of a language is it?

My goal is to help someone else turn their idea for a turn-based game into a flash-oriented one. Logic isn't really a big deal but I have zero experience with programming graphics and whatnot.

shadydentist

Not very. Actionscript obeys most programming language conventions. If you know java, its not too hard of a switch. Everything in flash is labeled as an object, with the class functions already available to you.

Drez

shadydentist wrote: »

Not very. Actionscript obeys most programming language conventions. If you know java, its not too hard of a switch. Everything in flash is labeled as an object, with the class functions already available to you.

Cool. I'm semi-familiar with Java's syntax, but it's not much different from other OOP. How animation savvy must I be? basically this would be a turn-based game so I'm assuming it would be less difficult than something that's real-time action based, right?

shadydentist

What do you mean by animation savvy? The nice thing about Flash is that animation is handled separately from from the code, but is frame-controllable by the code.

Jasconius

If you are asking these questions then you have a lot of work ahead of you.

"Complicated" is relative, and when you say robust I think about seriously designed object oriented app design which is... pretty hard, even for a good programmer just working by himself.

You'd be surprised how complicated programming can get.

The thing about Actionscript is that it's extremely easy to get basic animation functionality, and this fools a lot of people into thinking that they are good with it. As a result, there are a lot of AS programmers in the world who write slow as shit software that ends up not performing that well when scales up to game-sized code.

In terms of animation savvy... it depends entirely on what type of animations. There are two basic ways of doing animation in Flash. You can either make MovieClips and keyframe your animations, then control the display of the clip programatically, of you can literally program animation which is harder but, if done properly, easier to maintain (not very good for sprite animation though).

As far as AS3 in general... it is more complicated than javascript but far less complicated than java.

ಠ_ರೃ

Also if this is just a quick one off thing, great.

But recognize Flash is dying, and learning ActionScript now would be a waste of time for the most part. In a few years, we will be speaking of Flash in past tense only.

DigDug2000

ಠ_ರೃ wrote: »

Also if this is just a quick one off thing, great.

But recognize Flash is dying, and learning ActionScript now would be a waste of time for the most part. In a few years, we will be speaking of Flash in past tense only.

Except its being replaced by... ECMAScript which is... ActionScript without a few special events, objects, etc. Most of which could be replicated if you found the right Javascript toolkit (or wrote your own).

Jasconius

ಠ_ರೃ wrote: »

Also if this is just a quick one off thing, great.

But recognize Flash is dying, and learning ActionScript now would be a waste of time for the most part. In a few years, we will be speaking of Flash in past tense only.

Ignore this person because he has no idea what he is talking about.

1) Because it will be around much longer than 3 years in some form by any number of means that he hasn't even begun to consider

2) Actionscript 3 is based on language standards that echo or exist within several other languages, thus, learning it will translate well to other things including Javascript.

ಠ_ರೃ

Ignore the above two posters.

If you want to be more futureproof, go for Javascript. JavaScript isn't some simple little script language, it's a full and powerful programming language and you will be surprised with what it can do.

JavaScript pretty much is ECMAScript, implemented by Mozilla.

You could learn Actionscript and then translate to Javascript, but personally I suggest skipping the middle step and going straight for Javascript. Flash will certainly not be around more than 3 years.

Jasconius

Billion dollar corporation Adobe evaporates banner technology overnight

Jailed forumer singularly predicts downfall, hailed as hero

ಠ_ರೃ

see with a little ambition just what we can become here

Apothe0sis

I don't think it likely that Flash is dying. Flash, qua Flash, MAYBE, given that there are a whole range of competing and better integrated and feature complete technologies on the way (from HTML5 to the true coming of age of JS alternatives). But Adobe is pretty comprehensively expanding AS in as open a way that an company so stuck in the old ways knows how.

It would be GOOD if it was standardised and opened up to be an implementation of javascript with extra libraries or something but it's going to be around for a while in some form or other.

Alistair Hutton

Apothe0sis wrote: »

It would be GOOD if it was standardised and opened up to be an implementation of javascript with extra libraries or something but it's going to be around for a while in some form or other.

That possibility disappeared when ECMAScript 4.0 was shot down by various self-interested parties.

Jasconius

AS3 and JS will never be merged. I wouldn't want that anyway.

Just because the syntax is the same says nothing about the internals.

Now, AS2 could stand a chance at that.. they have much more in common, including the proliferation of dynamic objects. But Adobe doesn't want to perpetuate AS2, so far as I can tell.