Forum Moderators: open
Here's why...
The Flash interface is horrible. Its programming language is horrible. JavaScript? Please. You have to be an engineer to understand it. It was a bad choice for Macromedia to force graphic designers -- those who are most likely to use Flash -- to program in a JavaScript-like language. (However, I would like to see a hard-core programmer use PhotoShop...)
Why couldn't Macromedia develop Flash to emulate the well-known and established Director? People who use Director -- like myself -- would then have a easier time learning Flash. But instead, Flash is COMPLETELY different, which makes a knowledge of Director a hindrance rather than an asset.
Its hard to believe that a company can make two of their core applications behave so differently when in the authoring mode. If Adobe did that, they'd be out of business.
[edited by: jamski at 1:39 pm (utc) on April 9, 2003]
Any other idea?
Leo
ps. and welcome to webmasterworld
I know that Flash 2 was out while director was in version 5. I believe Flash 1 was out during Director 4. They never really were extremely similar as far as the interface goes. I think the reason for the difference between lingo and actionscript is the audience. Flash people were coming from a web background. I can understand your frustration to start using Flash at version 6, after being a director developer. Flash has really come a long way, and people that started using it early on have a definite leg up.
In the summer of 1996, we shipped FutureSplash Animator and began to get some interest. Our big success was in August of 1996, Microsoft was working on their web version of MSN and they wanted to create the most television like experience they could get on the Internet with a modem and computer and they because fans of FutureSplash.
The begining of Flash, was Futuresplash with MSN!
The history of Flash [untoldhistory.weblogs.com]
Craig
umm do you use Lingo?
I've been trained in both actionscript and Lingo and really maybe the syntax is different but an array is still an array. Its not that different really.
To tell you the truth I don't even like Director - and I think its place on the web is limited - for now at least.
We are comparing apples and oranges really - they have different uses and different users. F
lash 5 had a easy to learn interface - I think the Flash 6 interface is a little tougher to figure out if you arn't used to flash.
But maybe we arn't talking about the coding aspects?
if x = 56 then
go to frame 150
end if
or even
if the movieTime of sprite 2 = the duration of sprite 2 then
play "Menu"
end if
Pretty simple. I'm still having problems with JavaScript's ¦¦ and { }, and when to use == and when to use =. (So, where's the "then" in a JavaScript "if ... then" statement?)
Now, I'm not a heavy Lingo programmer, but I can get around the basics (which make up 90% of all projects).
Flash is the best program out there, and adobe should tkae some notes. I never liked how adobe products looked. Although very powerful, they made me ill if i were looking at them for the first time. Macromedia is fun to use, and lets you be mroe creative. I still use flash for all my vector needs.
C style programming, as Korkus mentioned, leads to good programming habits. Less prone to error, and easier to read structure.
The == and = difference isn't to tough to understand.
= is for assigning values
e.g., x = 1;
== is for testing values.
e.g,
if( x == 1 }
{
// If X equals one, do stuff here
}
With it's powerful compression and it's pretty much universal support at this point, Flash really the best multimedia solution there is out there. I mean, hell, look at [homestarrunner.com...] ;)
Flash 4 was the best.
I myself keep going back to version 4, It does everything I need!
However, I would like to see a hard-core programmer use PhotoShop...
Sounds silly, right?
Just as silly as thinking that graphics and flash designers are the same thing.
I hate flash, just because of it's overuse on the net, but as far as technical side - it's pretty good. And if you think it's too much to learn then it's just not your thing. Get over it and concentrate on what you do best.
This is a sort of a "front end" for Flash (although it is a stand alone program) that was created with frustrated beginners like you in mind.
Swish's everyday text and basic photo animations are very simple to learn with many effects that are completely automated. The program generates perfect swf flash files, no one will even know you didn't create your animation in the real thing.
And it is soooo cheap compared to Flash!
Pretty simple. I'm still having problems with JavaScript's ¦¦ and { }, and when to use == and when to use =. (So, where's the "then" in a JavaScript "if ... then" statement?)
Anything after the if (wrapped in {}'s if there is more than one statement) is the then part.
if (condition is true)
{
then do this stuff;
}
Not that difficult you see. Go to [w3schools.com...] and read over these tutorials, they will help you understand the syntax better.
