Beginning ActionScript 2.0
Macromedia Flash began as a vector animation tool, designed to help put a bit more punch into otherwise motionless web pages. At the time, web pages were simple and data-driven sites were few, so animation was one way to differentiate your pages from the rest of the crowd. Many people still hold the perception that Flash is only a tool for animation, in part due to the preponderance of Flash-based site intros and a very visible presence in banner and pop-up ads. While it remains a very good tool for animation, it has grown into a powerful means to do much more.
Macromedia Flash is a full-fledged application development environment. The real focus on using Flash for coding came with version 6, which introduced a new coding and event model leading to a cleaner, more flexible coding style. That version was the first major step in giving the developer power to create many interesting and useful applications. Flash 7 added a major scripting update, resulting in ActionScript 2.0. It provides a more structured, flexible, and maintainable programming style. Finally, Macromedia Flash 8 has expanded the offering, adding bitmap support, filters, and blending modes, file upload and download capabilities, an interface for communicating with the browser, and much more. All of the add-ons can be manipulated with script, not just with visual tools within the development environment. The mature capabilities of Macromedia Flash 8 have the potential to redefine user interactions and usability on the Web. Flash enables you to develop full-fledged applications that either run in a web browser or run standalone as an executable.
Regardless of whether you are just interested in dabbling with scripting, or you want to develop applications with thousands of lines of code, ActionScript is for you. Want to build a major e-business application, to create a personal portfolio, to create a game, or to work with media? This book will help you out. If you’ve done any work with any other scripting language such as JavaScript or programming language such as Java or Perl, you are already halfway there. Even if you’ve never touched a line of code, you still can learn to apply ActionScript to Macromedia Flash projects through the many examples shown in the successful Wrox “Try It Out” format.
