Gaming Your Way

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Day x - back from the dead

18. March 2008 nGFX General (2)
I doubt you noticed my absence from posting about the current game but I tell you anyway :).

Basically I had a few days off (unplanned) and then a f#%&%$ยง cold (unplanned, too) so work came pretty much to halt.

The worst what happened during that time was the constant flow of new ideas. Yesterday was the first day I was working again and I learned my funny little lesson about AS3. I haven't used it much (or for more than a few quick tests) but when I started to code the basic functions of the editor I learned to hate it.
Seeing AS3 from an c++ point of view it all makes more or less sense, but when dealing with it having a few years of AS1/AS2 experience some things just don't come a "natural" as they should.

I think that one of the biggest problems existing AS2 users have when starting with AS3 is the way AS3 deals with the display. It's easy to get by the new event model (which I really like) but the new display model just pissed me off big time during the first 3 hours.
For the editor there are a few things that rely on a timeline so I have to use exported MCs, I got the strong feeling that AS3 isn't made for handling timeline based things. (Some of them might have been coded but to be true I don't see the point in coding a color / alpha tween for some 15 elements.)
But handling a "classic" attached MC from AS3 feels as clumsy as a one legged dog.

back to work ... and hopefully some more code oriented posts in the future ...

nGFX

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Comments (2) -

  • ImprisonedPride

    3/18/2008 9:10:02 PM |

    You have single-handedly explained the reason I will forever refrain from touching AS3. Thank you for clearing it up for me. All along I thought I was just stupid. :)

  • nGFX

    3/19/2008 9:49:25 AM |

    Hi IP,
    once you get over the old MC based working methods it becomes easier ... (darn, who am I trying to fool?).

    And just to add another thing to rant about:
    Adobe made a f%&$§$ bad job with the documentation. Even Microsoft was able to write a technically brilliant AND readable documentation for their .NET framework.

    But have a look at Flash's built in help system ...

    - the darn window is slow as hell, you can't really move it to another screen because it's tied into the IDE, so just keeping it open on the second monitor and coding in another app (like I do) is pretty much impossible. (yes I could use the browser base live help, but when I'm on my way to work I don't have net ...)
    Q: why the fuck haven't they used the compiled windows help files - like EVERYBODY else did?

    - the help for AS3 might be technically correct, but if you're not a rocket scientist (and I'm def. not one) a simple code snippet would have been a real help.
    like the MouseEvents ... I know that the function that captures the event receives an MouseEvent Object (.NET has similar system, but way easier to understand) ... so all I needed instead of reading through it would have been something like this:

    "to capture the mouse event you need a funtion like this ...
    function onMouseOver (e:MouseEvent):void {}"

    THAT would have been all I needed, at least something like this in the first line would make it way easier to get coding.

    There are so many things that aren't working very well for existing users it's untrue, but it's easier if you're new to AS or if you have a background of some other coding languages.

    If you're new to AS, well only the documentation is your problem, if you used AS2 before ... well you either get over it or do AS2 for ever ...

    nGFX

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