Chapter8.Welcome to ActionScript 2.0

Chapter 8. Welcome to ActionScript 2.0

IN THIS CHAPTER

• What Is ActionScript?

• Object-Oriented Programming

• Where Do Objects Come From?

• Prototyping an Object

• Introduction to ActionScript 2.0

• Strict Data Typing Variables

• Strict Data Typing with Functions

• The Actions Panel

• Actions Panel Preferences

• Reference/Help Panel

• Behaviors and the Behaviors Panel

• ActionScript Fundamentals

• Comments

• Code Hints and Naming Conventions

• Dot Syntax

• The Movie Clip Object

• Functions

• Conditionals

• Loop Statements

So far in this book, you've learned how to create different things in Flash manually, how to publish Flash documents, and how to do basic animation and interactivity. This chapter begins a new world of understanding for Flash. In this chapter we cover ActionScript, the native language of Flash. We go over the basic principles of programming in Flash as well as some of the key features in ActionScript 2.0.

Before we start talking about the fundamentals of programming, it is important to understand what the language itself is.