Comments on: Why I hate doLater and waiting a frame

By: bill

bill — Wed, 22 Feb 2006 19:24:47 +0000

we need some help with actonscript and flash v2 component knowledge/expertise

By: Igor

Igor — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 10:09:17 +0000

There is a need for doLater(or postponed execution) when making components. If working with MM v2 components, there is no way to avoid it.

By: Peter

Peter — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 23:18:13 +0000

Nigel, I do believe I heard you say or at least quote that “if all else fails … ” in your Q&A session at the last edition of FlashForward in SF

In any case, I do use doLater quite a lot when doing v2 component development. As was rightly pointed out the components do have their init events and use it for dealing with component params.

By: Ash

Ash — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 22:15:36 +0000

I think I came across this while extending mx.core.View. The idea that initLayout came one frame later than I expected messed up my thinking.

I ask for peoples opinions about this because I happen to be writing my own component framework, and its always nice to know that you’re going about things the right way

By: nig

nig — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 21:22:43 +0000

I don’t think I ever said “if all else fails, wait another frame” (I think you might be thinking of Peldi.. and I got on his case about that). If you’re not making components, you should never need doLater. However, there are a couple of great times and places for doLater in building components… They have nothing to do with event bubbling or timelines or all that other random stuff you guys are citing (as Jester points out, we already have events for initialization even in V2). Since everyone here is an expert (especially, it seems, in identifying hacks), can anyone tell me what they are?

By: JesterXL

JesterXL — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 20:55:59 +0000

For MovieClip’s, use onLoad.

For Components, use onLoad, or for mx.core.View, use initLayout.

In Flex 1.5, use childrenCreated.

In Flex 2, use creationComplete.

By: senocular

senocular — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 20:04:44 +0000

doLater is a hack. I don’t like it just as much as the next guy. I usually implement my own callbacks to avoid such trickery.

By: Mike Jones

Mike Jones — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 17:04:37 +0000

Couldn’t agree more. Bubbled events are an obvious solution to this hack, and something I utilize over doLater as much as I can whilst still allowing for compatability with the v2 framework.

By: Keith Peters

Keith Peters — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 16:42:08 +0000

I agree, it definitely smells like a hack. One of those leftover artifacts from the Flash timeline. As Nigel Pegg is quoted as saying, “If all else fails, wait another frame.”