Just playing around with and getting used to Flex Builder..

Movie and source file after the jump! (Flash player 8.5 beta 2 required to see the movie).

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Nothing super-special.. just a couple of utility methods I use for modifying colour values. The function names give clues to what they do

Source code after the jump..

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Was just browsing the AS3 specification, and thought this new feature was pretty interesting.

Namespace example, copied below.

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After almost a year of using PrimalScript for my Actionscript coding, I finally made the switch to FlashDevelop after the latest beta release.

It has everything I ever wanted in a script editor and even stuff that I didn’t know I wanted until now.

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After months of development, it’s finally available to the public. The Web 2.0 Startup Company Name Generator!

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I am posting this on behalf of the company I work for in the middle of Boston, MA. Note that the emphasis is on application development, not graphic design. Please email Xplana directly rather than contacting me!

Actionscript/Flash Developer

Established educational software company in Boston, MA is in search of an experienced Actionscript developer possessing the following skills:

- Solid understanding of Actionscript 2.0.
- Understanding of Flash Communication Server/remoting, component development, XML writing and parsing, etc.
- Experience in applying object oriented programming techniques and design patterns.
- Ability to write code from scratch or edit pre-existing code.
- Ability to analyze and solve complex problems.
- Ability to learn new skills quickly .
- Focused self-starter who requires little supervision or direction.
- Ability to deliver against deadlines.
- Excellent teamwork skills.
- Knowledge of Director a plus but not required.

Please send a recent resume and code/application samples to jobs@xplana.com.

If you would like to know more about the company, visit xplana.com

The whole method of waiting a frame to allow other functions to complete never sat right with me. It just seems.. broken.
In the MX components, doLater is used a lot - a function for putting off execution of another function until the next frame.. usually to allow other child components to finish initializing before laying them out.

Personally I would have used a cascading series of events, where the child components dispatch an “Ok I’m ready” event. The parent component would listen for these and when all child components are ready, it does its stuff and dispatches its own “Ready” event.

I’d be interested to know what methods other people use to make sure that things like layout get executed in the right order.

I don’t usually have a problem with comment spam.. I delete the few that manage to get past the filter. I just got a spam message apparently from a previous legitimate commenter (Mr Peters, I didn’t know you’d taken up trying to sell little blue pills). The comment was ‘no problem….’, but on the last dot there was a link to a dubious site.

Nice try! Too bad it was spotted
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All this new functionality is a lot to take in at the moment, but I noticed something new about the DisplayObjectContainer class (which is inherited by MovieClip). In particular the addChild and removeChild methods which replace the traditional attachMovie.

Does this mean that you can remove a movie clip from one target and place it in another without losing the MovieClip’s state?

Theres lots of cool new stuff, and not enough time outside of work to look at it all!

With the upcoming release of Flash Player 8.5, I wonder if the Flash developer community will be able to unlock it’s secrets before the Flash 9 alpha, just like they did with Flash player 8. Or did Macromedia go to the trouble of hiding or disabling the new AS3 goodness?

Just a thought.