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Flash CS3 Part I: Incarnation of a Great Product |
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Written by John Tang
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Sunday, 04 May 2008 |
 Flash CS3 is without doubt one of the greatest products. There are many
important new features and updates. The most important new technology
is ActionScript 3.0. This language will allow you to create a killer
Flash file without ever having to use the IDE's timeline. As a result,
Adobe has handsomely positioned Flash as a tool for both designers and
programmers.
Designers still have all the ease and power of a
graphical timeline. ActionScript 3.0 allows the programmer to have
absolute control of the Flash application that they create. There will
be times whenworking with the timeline is more beneficial just like
there will be times when coding is the preferred method of creating an
engaging Flash application. To fully harness the power of Flash CS3
you will need to understand both the designer tools and the new
programming language.
If you have never created content with Flash now would be a good time to learn. Flash CS3 with ActionScript 3.0 will change the way programs are written. It is the fusion of Internet accessibility, distribution, and scalability combined with the power of desktop applications. Think of a great desktop program. Maybe Quicken, Photoshop, or Winamp come to your mind. These applications have rich interfaces with power capabilities. Now think of a great web site. The site probably has one or more of the following features: great design, quick response, easy navigation, reliable. Now imagine the area where these two software domains merge. This is the flourishing realm of Rich Internet Applications (RIA).
Flash CS3 is the most promising platform for RIA development. I say this with confidence because it's based on a proven platform: the Flash player. The Flash player is ubiquitous. I doubt any normal computer user hasn't visited a Flash driven site before. It is easy to install the Flash player on new machines. There is very little reason why some one would resist to install the player on their machine. Add ActionScript 3.0 to the mix and you have a very powerful platform for application development. Flash has moved beyond just snazzy web animation and arcade game. It is part of a full blown application platform from Adobe.
There are many ways to use Flash CS3. Designers can still use the timeline to create compelling, attention getting animated web sites. Application developers will be at ease with using Flash CS3 and ActionScript 3.0 as if it were C++, Java, or C#. Systems programmers, especially those with client/server experience, will appreciate the design of the IDE as a visual programming IDE like Visual Basic or even PowerBuilder. Flash CS3 will appeal to many people. I will discuss the many different ways Flash CS3 can be used.
About John Tang
John Tang's college roommate convinced him to go into IT since computing was his passion. He studied Applied Mathematics at UCLA but always had a love of programming. He worked at a research lab on the UCLA campus where he learned Fox Pro, SQL, and local area networking. His first "real" job was at Ernst & Young where he did mainframe programming with Cobol and client server development with Powerbuilder, Sybase. He has been working as a web programmer since 1999 starting with Java, HTML, JavaScript, and Oracle before migrating to PHP and MySQL.
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