ActionScript

What it is

ActionScript was the scripting language of Adobe Flash Player and Adobe AIR, first created at Macromedia. It is based on ECMAScript, the same standard as JavaScript, so its syntax is familiar to web developers. It drove animation, interactivity, data loading and full applications running inside Flash. Code could be attached to timeline frames or written as separate class files.

ActionScript 3, introduced with Flash Player 9, was a major rewrite with classes, strict typing and a much faster virtual machine. It made larger object-oriented applications practical, and it was the language under Adobe Flex. When browsers dropped Flash Player at the end of 2020, ActionScript in the browser went with it.

How I use it

• Games programming in ActionScript alongside the art curriculum in the Game Art and Animation masters program, 2003 to 2005.
• At B3 Communications, 2007 to 2008, built the Experience Engines in ActionScript 2 and 3: interactive property systems in luxury real estate sales showrooms, including Ritz-Carlton Kapalua.
• At Metal Mountain Resources, an object-oriented Flex, ActionScript 3, PHP and MySQL CRM tracking investors, investment activity and shareholder communication.
• Insurance content sites delivered on CD-ROM at Marsh Canada, and customer-tailored solutions through my independent contracts.

For most of the 2000s, ActionScript was how you built rich interactive work for the browser and for kiosks: animation, touchscreens and data-driven applications. ActionScript and Flash paid for most of my 2000s. The tools went away, but the habit they taught me, building interfaces people want to touch, still shapes the apps I build in React today.

Questions