http://www.actionscript.org/resources en-us http://www.actionscript.org/resources N/A 20 http://www.actionscript.org/resources/blogs/9/Colin-Moock-on-Actionscript-4-FITC-Amsterdam-2008.html Last week at FITC Amsterdam I attended Colin Moock's session about the next version of ECMAScript. As ECMAScript is the language standard on which Actionscript is (somewhat loosely) based, this means that most proposed features for ECMAScript 4.0 will also be in Actionscript 4.0 (hence the name "Actionscript 4??"). Do note that most of the proposals are still just that. Here's a quick summary: Record type - The record type is like a light-weight class and lets you define a set of properties that any variable of that type should have. Array type - The array type lets you specify the allowed datatypes for values in your array, in a semi-indexspecific way: type someArray = [boolean, int, string]; This also goes for rest-argument arrays in method-signiatures, which is hellacool. Union types - ECMAScript 4 allows you to specify multiple allowed datatypes for a property, return-type, etc: var n:(int|uint) Nullable & non-nullable types - With the ? and ! characters you can (respectively) allow or keep variables from carrying null-values. The same goes for classes. Lexical block scoping - ..gives you just a little more power over the scope to which your variables and functions are local. Just surround the required scope with accolades ( { and } ) and declare your variable with 'let' instead of 'var'. One-line methods - Lets you declare write a function in pretty much the same way as you would a one-line if-statement. ||= - Easy for assigning default-values: iDontWantToBeNull ||= "not null" // value is only assigned if var is null Method overloading! - Hooray. Yeah. ..use the generic keyword. Operator overloading - Useful if you would want to have + (the plus-operator) perform a concat-operation when executed upon arrays. cast-operator - As in AS3 there's still a difference between the as-operator and the oldskool-way of casting (MyClass(myVar)), the cast-operator will be introduced to replace the latter. Datatype switching - ECMAScript 4 will allow for variables their datatypes to be evaluated through a switch-statement, which is kinda cool. Multiline strings - Putting three double-quotes at the start and end of your string will allow you to have it spawn multiple lines, you also won't have to escape any double-quotes you have in your triple-quoted string. . For those of you interested, here's the online version of Colin's presentation: moock.org/lectures/newInECMAScript4 Ruben Swieringa Wed, 05 Mar 2008 00:00:00 CST http://www.actionscript.org/resources/blogs/8/FITC-Amsterdam-day-2.html Oh man this was just too awesome! Today was the second day of FITC Amsterdam and it just got even better than it already was. Right now I'm still rushing on adrenaline and waiting for fatigue to kick in, so here's just a little overview, more lenghty reviews will follow in the next few days.. Having overslept I walked into today's first presentation not before halfway through, and honestly I instantly regretted not having been on time. Koen de Weggheleire did a really good job entertaining the audience (which still seemed kind of sleepy and reluctant with applauding) with his presentation about bitmap-manipulation. Especially the fly-smashing part really got me smiling. The rest of the day was really just one big bunch of inspiration, seeing some really beautiful artwork by Jared Tarbell (here are the pieces he showed) and also Erik Natzke. Also really mind-blowing was all of the audio-stuff Andre Michelle had to show (but more about that later). In my opinion the best part of today was James Paterson's (most inspiring) presentation. I was already familiar with the work he's done for VH1 and as it turns out I had already come across his website a couple of years ago, so seeing him show off all of his insanely awesome animations, characters and drawings was althemore exciting/interesting. Ruben Swieringa Tue, 26 Feb 2008 00:00:00 CST http://www.actionscript.org/resources/blogs/7/FITC-Amsterdam-day-one.html So I eventually managed to make it to the FITC venue, just in time (or actually somewhat late) for Colin Moock's presentation about the proposed new features in ECMAScript 4.0 and it's consequences for the next version of ActionScript.I did miss part of the lecture, but the most interesting parts for me were the new functionality at better and stricter typecasting, easy iterating with the new iterators & generators, operator overloading and other general improvements for debugging and quick coding purposes.Something I noticed was that a lot of functionality seemed to be borrowed from or inspired on python, so any of you guys who have some experience with this language should be quite happy with that.For some more in-depth information I'd like to refer you to the presentation file or Ruben's upcoming post, since he was there for the entire lecture and managed to take some notes.At the end of the presentation I met up with Ruben and we continued on to Seb Lee-Delisle's presentation about particles in Flash.Since I work a lot on interactive visual performances, this was one of the lectures that was of particular interest to me. I especially liked the somewhat more advanced applications which involved user interaction using webcams, such as the interactive fireworks display Pyrotechnics to the People.His approach is simple, effective and quite neatly coded, which is always a plus in my book. It isn't quite as extensive as most particle systems found in professional video editing systems, but it's simplicity gives the user a lot of options to custom tailer it to personal needs, be it with a bit more work.If you would like to experiment with his particle code, you can download his experiments.That's it for the lectures I attended today, hopefully tomorrow I'll end up with an entire day's worth of new impressions, so check back here tomorrow! Jonathan van Woudenberg Mon, 25 Feb 2008 00:00:00 CST http://www.actionscript.org/resources/blogs/6/FITC-Amsterdam-day-1.html Today was the first day of FITC Amsterdam and man did I have a great time. Of course Aral Balkan was inspiring as always and Richard Galvan had me laughing there a good couple of times during the keynote at the beginning of the day (talking about showing robots and killer-bunnies, and oddly enough keeping his promise). Also Colin Moock had quite a few interesting things to say about the new ECMAScript and Actionscript 4. Fortunately Jonathan did make it to FITC and we met up halfway throughout the day. Right now I'm going to write an end to this post but I'll be sure to write some more later this week about some of the actual lectures themselves. Stay tuned! Ruben Swieringa Mon, 25 Feb 2008 00:00:00 CST http://www.actionscript.org/resources/blogs/5/I-want-to-go-to-FITC-but.html I'm stuck in a crisis meeting...The guys at ActionScript.org were so nice to give Ruben Swieringa and me tickets to go to Flash in the Can in Amsterdam, so we could bring back all the hot bits of information to you guys.But as luck would have it, I'm having to skip the morning presentations, since I'm stuck in a meeting.I'll try and keep you posted about my progress; expect my next blog entry to be from the ride there! Jonathan van Woudenberg Mon, 25 Feb 2008 00:00:00 CST http://www.actionscript.org/resources/blogs/4/Going-to-FITC-Amsterdam.html Yes I am. Jesse from Actionscript.org was kind enough to hook me up with some tickets for FITC Amsterdam 2008, this is awesome. I'm particularly excited about getting to see Joshua Davis talk, I remember being baffled when I first saw his work. Also, I'm very curious as to what Erik Natzke will be talking about, but I guess I'll find out tomorrow.. I'll try to keep you guys posted over the course of the next two days. Ruben Swieringa Sun, 24 Feb 2008 00:00:00 CST