Flash 9
Yesterday I participated in an online seminar on Actionscript 3, the language used by the new Flash 9 player. It’s been available for developers to start using, but I’ve been a little slow getting to it. Until recently, see, I worked for a government institution — and they are not known for being early adopters. I’m very impressed, though, with the new changes. Just a few of the things I noted: a standardized event model, more useful XML parsing, phenomenal speed improvements, and (finally) regular expressions. Actionscript is getting downright Java-like, too.
I wonder how many designers came to programming through Actionscript. It’s an amazing thing that Macromedia did: they took designers and, by slowly exposing them to programming, turned a few of them into object oriented coders as well. Java might actually be capable of making immersive interactive media, but it’s never been able to hook the artists. In fact, some parts of Java — the AWT and Swing — feel downright hostile to design.
I’m very excited about the Flash 9 changes — I’ll have to play with it some this weekend.