Flash-MX: News

Well... how do I put this...?
I TRIED to learn ActionScript (Flash 5) got really frustrated - went back to Lingo. Got really frustrated - migrated to iShell. iShell isn't Flash or Director - switched to VisualBasic. VisualBasic isn't Flash... hmmm... switched to Java... still not Flash. Eventually gave up and learned ActionScript. ;-)

Am I glad I did - yes. I wish things were easier still - but overall I am glad I learned ActionScript (v2).

why use actionscript when you can use behaviors ;)

heh, behaviors...one of the many things about mx04 ive never touched, including screens and v2 components.

I do know of a few people though who were totally distraught about the removal of normal mode, then realized that most of the stuff they were doing isn't that hard with hand coded AS...it's just the fact that it's taking away from their design time.

I would say that I learned ActionScript thanks to Normal mode. After a few weeks of learning the code it generated from my input, I was ready to go without training wheels. That was, of course, a few years ago, and I never missed Normal mode until they got rid of it in MX2004. Happens that I talked to many people who were not programmers at all (schools teachers, graphics designers, etc.) and they were in shock, since the way the used to work with Flash was suddenly slashed.

I unsure of the final outcome, but the fact that I haven't heard or read any more complaints in a long time might indicate that everything turned out ok.

I hear ya all - this is very interesting feedback!

You know, I was thinking about not seeing complaints for a long time as well (why I thought it might be safe to do this blog, in fact!) I had heard a few people say they had learned ActionScript as a result of it being gone, thought maybe that's why everything died down a bit. Or, perhaps many others went a different direction, still unhappy, or whatnot.

I've never use normal mode :P

Learned ActionScript by being forced to Expert Mode. Thank god MM dumped normal mode. There is no way you can write a complex program using behaviors alone. Do yourself a favor and learn actionscript. It gets pretty easy really quick once you learn the syntax is the same for virtually everything.

blahblah = function(){

}

Steve