Comments on: ECMAScript 4.0 Gone, My Reaction

By: brendan

brendan — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 06:14:56 +0000

i want to see work on the dynamic aspects of Actionscript, like Proxy, working on Dynamic Class performance, reflection, Meta programming in AS3… make sockets really good….and I want the ability to fiddle with compiled AS byte code… pixelblender/AIR so we can build our own photoshop? ecma, scmeckma… also, Flashplayer 10, nuff said…

By: Don-Duong Quach

Don-Duong Quach — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 17:34:40 +0000

How many Flash/Flex developers expected their investment in learning AS3 would transfer to other platforms anyway? The only reason I learned Actionscript was because Adobe provided a platform which had a low barrier to entry (familiar language syntax to C/Java/JS, affordable / free tools, big designer and developer base) and tremendous capabilities (graphical, audio, networking, OS agnostic) compared to other platforms.

Look at haXe community and the open source community is doing. The language war is irrelevant in the big scheme of things. If anything, Adobe should provide for multiple languages against the Flash runtime because their has been a lot of discussion about AS3 being to geared towards developers and has left designers behind, though I know some say they shouldn’t be coding anyway. Without a “scripters’” language that increases the barrier to entry and people will look at other languages and platforms which may not be as feature-ful but free as in beer and freedom and comprehensible. Without advanced language features, you’re limiting the capabilities of your best developers. Not good for a platform we want to grow!

As this politicking ensues, I’m happy about investing my time in learning haXe.

By: Rich Tretola

Rich Tretola — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 11:17:30 +0000

I don’t know if they will, but I wish they would. I say forget the standard and just build the language the way they see fit.

By: Mark McDonnell

Mark McDonnell — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 10:26:55 +0000

“…as any handcuffs that were slowing Adobe’s progress on the AS3 base are now removed…”

I’m really hoping this will be the case! :0)

I’ve just gotten used to the AS3 language and bought loads of books relating to it and just in general invested quite a bit of my time, money, sweat and tears into AS3 that it would be criminal for them to shift it all around (which not matter what I highly doubt that will happen).

Lets face it, Adobe know that AS3 is good and it has a lot of features that we all wanted to see so they would never take a ‘backward step’ they would always have to keep moving forward and that is what I think will happen.

I look forward to AS4 with relish!! :0)

By: John C. Bland II

John C. Bland II — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 09:41:45 +0000

Method/Constructor overload…WOO HOO! That’d be MUCHHHHHH welcomed in AS3.

I’d like to see if they would really deviate from the proposed spec seeing as time may come around for ECMA’4 to be proposed again.

Do you think they would go rogue and do their own thing?