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Here at OnlineCC’s development studio we decided to take the plunge and delve into the world of AS3. Many digital agencies out there have already made the switch and are currently reaping the benefits. Online has never been one to shy away from new technology and having just finished an era of AS2 development we can safely make the transfer to AS3. Gone are the days of hacking at flash until it would give in to our demands. We have taken AS2 to its limits and pushed boundaries I thought were not possible, but alas its time for change and I for one am glad this day has come. AS2’s extremely lazy parser was both a thorn in our side and a blessing at times. We encountered numerous problems throughout the development phase, plagued by missing movie clips, fonts not properly embedding, and a few thousand undefined variables. This was made worse by the fact that AS2’s API was extremely lacking compared to other major programming language’s wide array of predefined functions.

The ridiculously loose typing and sprawling syntax of AS2 caused significant efficiency and coding standard issues. AS2’s overall lack of structure allowed lazy programmers to write hideous code that would still make it through to compile. Onlinecc’s dev team were born with strict coding standards embedded into our brains and always make every possible effort to adhere to them even if AS2 didn’t. Now that we have had a chance to make the switch to AS3 we can clearly see AS2’s major downfalls. AS3’s strict OO structure allows us to cut down on project development time in the studio immensely. If only AS3 had showed its face earlier in the game there would not have been so many sleepless nights and team programming sessions trying to shape flash to suit our needs. AS3 is now a much more grown up language and extremely similar to Java’s coding practises.

So why should you make the switch to AS3 if your perfectly happy in your AS2 environment? OK lets begin with the major issue of AS2’s rather shabby depth control. This is a notorious subject within the AS2 flash community in which there are numerous different hacks. AS3 solves this with its rather straight forward display list. Depth control is essentially handled by flash now which means you have no need to worry about what level you give your clips.

For me the best feature that really wanted me to move to AS3 was the claim that ‘ActionScript 3.0 offers up to a 10-fold increase in performance over previous versions’. This is down to the fact that Adobe have completely rewritten the ActionScript Virtual Machine for AS3. As we all know flash can run like a mule at times and hopefully this will solve many of our worries during development and design stage.

Another major winner for AS3 is that it has a monumental API in comparision to AS2’s. This is by far one of the greatest reasons to upgrade. I was so sick of having to create functions that should exist by default. Again I reiterate this is really going to save you a ridiculous amount of time during development.

If you’re still riding on the fumes of AS2 I suggest you jump ship now! Its time to get out of your AS2 comfort zone and start programming in a fully object orientated manner. You can streamline your development process with AS3. Say goodbye to your dishevelled AS2 code and welcome in AS3’s clean coding standards. Obviously there might be a steep learning curve if you’re not used to OOP but you can easily overcome this boundary. If you want to step up your game, then make the choice now before you fall behind. Adobe seem to be progressing incredibly within their market destroying the competition with their innovation and forward thinking ideas. This rings true with their progress in Flash Lite 3, Air and AS3 all of which Onlinecc will be taking into full R&D cycles.

And yes I do realise how ridiculously geeky this blog is so to wake you up here is a picture of my cat ninja kicking you in the face!

HIIEEE YAAAAAAA

This post was written by Ahmed Meer