actionscript 3 what is a class?

[eyeronik]

Im having a lot of trouble trying to understand the new actionscript 3 and wondering whether to do my final uni project in as3, although im a designer that means i wont be expected to code things in a job, (so ive been told). The problem is I have a deadline, I know how to use actionscript 2 and I have a lot of work to do and learning new scripting method which is difficult wont get me anymore marks and may make my work worse visually etc because I wont be able to code the things I want.

Now I would however like someone to explain to me what classes are, Ive read some explanations, some of which dont even make sense.

So in actionscript 2 Id create a variable, turn it to on, or 100 then Id just say variable now is 60 etc. This is quite easy to understand. Now they have changed everything!

I just dont understand the setup. I read you have to now import things at the start of everything. I have read everything is now an object. It was before wasnt it!

I hope someone can just explain the setup in a better way or link to a good explanation because the ones I have found I dont really think the people fully understand it.

[ryryguy]

A good analogy for classes and objects: think of classes as cookie cutters, and objects as cookies.

With a gingerbread man cookie cutter (class), you can stamp out many gingerbread man cookies (objects). The cutter defines the initial shape of the gingerbread man - two arms, two legs, two heads. Each cookie, though, is its own entity. Bite off the arm of one cookie, and now it only has one arm. However, all the other cookies on the tray aren't affected - they still have two arms. And if you make a new cookie using the cutter, it will start out with two arms.

In AS 3 not all objects are made from classes. There are primitive types like int and Boolean and you can still make variables of those and just set them to True/False, 100/60.

You don't have to make your own classes really. You may have to use some classes that are part of the AS3 library, like Sprite, Font, Array, and Loader. For these you may have to use an import statement, but that's pretty easy. In the documentation at the top will be something that says "Package". Just stick a period on the end and the name of the class after that, and put "import" in front of that, and you have the import statement you need, like

import flash.display.Sprite; // "flash.display" is the package, "Sprite" is the class 

Put that at the top of the first frame of code and you can use "Sprite" anywhere in the timeline.

[theRemix]

Originally Posted by ryryguy

... shape of the gingerbread man - two arms, two legs, two heads. ...

nice dual core gingerbread men you got there.

[Flash Gordon]

classes are one complete idea. They are a group of functions (called methods) and variables (called properties) contained in a file.

[ryryguy]

Originally Posted by theRemix

nice dual core gingerbread men you got there.

You think that's something, you should see my animal crackers...

[Clox]

Originally Posted by theRemix

nice dual core gingerbread men you got there.

Haha, thanks a lot. That really made me laugh, I needed that! =D

[eyeronik]

sorry i didnt reply, thanks for the information!

[jaga]

From an artists point of view, there doesn't seem to be any reason to use actionscript 3 if you don't have to..

There are things you can do with code in AS3 that you can't do with AS2, but in terms of design and art I can't think of any real benefits.