complete noob question. flash from text editor

[soccerizi]

I have never used flash so I have no idea what I am saying. Can flash be written using only a text editor? I really get frustrated with the GUI editors and I would prefer to do it from a text editor. And BTW is there a difference between flash and actionscript?
Remember complete noob.

[annexion]

Actionscript is the underlying language of Flash. You can use a text editor to edit it, but you can't save it that way, you must copy and past it into the movie, or use the include command.

[soccerizi]

So It's like writing code in a text editor and then compiling it.
I think I get it.