|  If you're a designer who's never done any programming before, your first tendency when you reach this chapter might be to panic. If you're a designer, why do you have to know anything about programming? You don't have to become a brilliant programmer, but the more you know about how programming inside Flash 5 works, the better prepared you'll be to take advantage of the power of ActionScript in your projects. You also will understand what those crazy programmers are talking about. Think about it: With a little effort on your part, you can drive the programmers nuts without using multiple masks and layers ! Okay, it's time to talk about ActionScript. In this chapter, you learn about the following: -
Programming methodologies. There are two main types of programming methodologies: procedural programming and object-oriented programming. You learn what the differences are and why Flash 5 uses the object-oriented methodology. -
Objects, methods , and properties. In object-oriented programming languages, you work with objects, their methods, and their properties. You learn what each concept means to the object-oriented programmer and how to use it. -
Basic concepts in programming. If you've never programmed before, you'll need a quick introduction to basic programming concepts. You learn about curly braces, arrays, loops , syntax, and more. -
Extending objects. The Flash 5 ActionScript programming language has a number of prebuilt objects for you to use. You learn how to add functionality to the existing objects. -
Creating new objects. Not only can you extend the existing objects in Flash, but also you can create your own objects. You learn how to create the methods and properties you need and how to tie them together to create a new object. We begin by taking a look at some of the fundamentals of programming and what makes object-oriented languages different from other languages. |
