This link is an oldie but a goodie. It has helped me remember to KISS countless times and to focus on the needs of users when designing sites. Check it out.
An Introduction to Using Patterns in Web Design [37 Signals]
dispatchEvent()™
Collective thoughts on the Flash Platform, iOS, Unity, and any other technology we use.
Filed under Tutorial …
ActionScript 3.0 Bible Available Now
by Mims H Wright
View this article in other languages:
- Russian (РуÑкий) translation by Michael
After nearly a year in development I’m very proud to announce that the ActionScript 3.0 bible has hit the shelves. This is our first book and its very exciting for us. The AS3 Bible is not just an update to the previous edition, the Flash 8 ActionScript Bible, but was written from the ground up with ActionScript 3.0 development in mind. We tried to focus on topics that matter to real world developers and to make it just as useful for experienced AS2 developers as it is for beginning programmers.
We’ve put a lot into this book and sincerely hope you enjoy it.
NOTE: many people have been complaining about the lack of code on the companion site. We’re currently working with our publisher to get that sorted out as soon as possible and hopefully it should be up by the end of the week.
I asked a passing hobo to pose for a picture with the new Bible
(Apollo) Air FileSystem Tutorial Part 1 – File and FileStream
by Mims H Wright
One of the most important new features in Apollo is the ability to access the local file system directly. This provides developers with the ability to read and edit text or html files, save preferences locally, store application states as external files, serialize and de-serialize data and much more. This tutorial will cover the File API features in Apollo step-by-step and will serve as a supplement to the talk I recently gave at the New York Flex Users Group.
This tutorial will be presented in multiple sections. This first will cover the File and FileStream classes and the subsequent ones will cover the Flex components used for viewing and accessing the file system and serializing and de-serializing data.
(pseudo) Abstract Classes in AS3!
by Mims H Wright
(Since we’re MXNA’d now, I wanted to bring this post and maybe a couple of others back up to the top by reposting them. This was written back in October)
I was looking at this blog post by Tink about more strict Abstract constructors in Flash using Errors. I worked out a way that is a bit more formalized. It adds support for abstract methods and unlike Tink’s example, doesn’t require you to type out the string of the class name.
Order of Operations Strikes Again
by Roger Braunstein
Quick AS3 hint for today. Keep learning from my mistakes! Did you know that the order of the ! operator is higher than the order of the is operator? That means that in the example:
if (!strategy is AwesomeStrategy) {...
in which I am trying to run some code if the strategy is not an instance of AwesomeStrategy, actually evaluates:
if (null is AwesomeStrategy) {...
if (false) {...
In other words, the not binds higher and applies to strategy instead of strategy is AwesomeStrategy, the condition evaluates to false 100% of the time, and you end up puzzled as to why the block in the if statement didn’t run. Don’t make my mistake! Include parentheses when negating comparisons! Use this instead:
if (!(strategy is AwesomeStrategy)) {...
That’s right, you heard it here first. Unless you aren’t as tired as me right now and already knew that. Actually, as I look at my incorrect code now, it seems pretty obviously incorrect. OH WELL!
See the whole order of operations in AS3 here.