Flash History

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In the beginning, Flash's scripting engine was very primitive, consisting of very short and quick commands. Flash took a few giant steps before it developed the champion we know today as ActionScript. It wasn't until the fifth version of Flash that the program began to display its abilities . Let's dive into the past and check out Flash history, shall we?

First off, Macromedia didn't invent Flashthey bought out a developer because they had a gigantic vision for the software. Before becoming the well-known program it is today, Flash was called FutureSplash. Yes, FutureSplash was its name . Even though it was very primitive, the whole idea behind the interactivity was grounded. Computers were initially meant to be interactive, and HTML was mainly static and not interactive at all. Something flashier was needed to get things moving. A mere GIF animation wasn't doing it anymore.

Flash later became known as Macromedia Flash and made a huge impression on the game development industry with all its applications. Flash and ActionScript have been used for games , business presentations, Web development, scientific demonstrations , and much more. In addition, it runs on every major system known to man! Since Flash apps all run inside the Flash player (and not directly on the native hardware) a Flash app written on Windows will run on other platforms without modification. And so, Macromedia has come a long way with their little application.

ActionScript itself didn't start catching on until Flash 4 came out. At this stage, the only way the programmer was able to enter instructions was through restricted dialog boxes. A drop-down box was the extent of your flexibility. Looking back at it, it sucked! But at that time it was a major breakthrough .

Flash 5 had a gigantic impact and revolutionized what Flash meant to the world. Tons of commands were added, and a Flash developer was now able to take this nice set of commands and actually type them into a new built-in text editor. This was so much more efficient compared to the past, and games started to sprout everywhere!

NOTE

NOTE

ActionScript follows the ECMAScript (European Computer Manufacturers Association Script) standard. Many other languages also follow this standard, and this is why they are similar in structure. JavaScript (Netscape) and JScript (Microsoft) are both examples of ActionScript relatives.

Now, Flash 6which is distributed as Flash MXcontains over 300 commands for you to play with. Every development task you could think of can be done within Flash MX (with ActionScript of course)! You're only limited by your imagination . It's a very powerful application and you will be rewarded if you use it professionally.

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