Getting my feet wet with ActionScript 3.0

I know this post is about a day late and a dollar short, but I have been struggling with finding time and projects to get into ActionScript 3 for about a year now – and I have finally gotten into the swing of cramming it into my head. The hardest part is not the differences, it's not the various paradigms for programming – it's just getting past my hang-ups with not being an Object oriented Programmer. I excel at Procedural Programming, and I need to make peace with that before my head esplodes.

With what I have been able to work with so far I love it. In fact I wish I had forced myself to make the time a year ago, but the fact is the time wasn't right. I now have several projects looming that will all but require me to be at least familiar with AS 3 before I can even begin them; so I have to now. A lot of the changes in ActionScript 3 are welcome changes to the various quirks that drive me crazy about Flash and AS 2. I have always been in love with Flash and what it can do, but it's been a love hate relationship. The quirks and inconsistencies I would regularly run into would drive me completely off my nutt. I know that will most likely not go entirely away – but it promises to be diminished with this new (ish) version.

I working through Learning ActionScript 3.0: A Beginner's Guide by Rich Shupe & Zevan Rosser and I have to say this is an excellent book. I had no doubt when I bought as I have always had success with Adobe books. There are quite a few concepts that I have been skimming as I am already very familiar with them, but the point was to get a basic, ground up understanding of AS 3. I have other books too, like Essential ActionScript 3.0 by Colin Moock – but this is more what I need to get my head wrapped around it as a whole; which is not a reflection of Colin's book in any way – he's brilliant.

Anyway…. I am working on a new website which will eventually be ported to AS 3 as well as some universal files that I will share when they are done. I am hoping to make some components too, but we'll see how the files go. I want to make a new universal loader to load external swf files using AS 3 and SWFObject 2. As well as a couple others.

 I still have a ways to go yet, but despite that brain-pain, I am enjoying the challenge of starting something new again.

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