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Comment by snorkel | Hacker News Reader

Please tell me that all those crazy redundant type declarations I see in AS3 code is optional too? IMHO AS1 started as a broken but usable language then AS2 and AS3 came along and added layers of Java-style bureaucracy for no good reason. AS should've been more like Javacsript with simple duck-typing and first order functions, etc. Flash developers are web developers who know and understand Javascript. Why on earth AS3 has to become so different then Javascript is beyond me.

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Actually, ActionScript can be an extremely elegant and powerful language, when coded "correctly". The vast majority of Flex developers come from either a design or Java background, and as a result you find that most ActionScript RIA code adheres to strict application frameworks, static typing, etc...and rarely takes advantage of the interesting parts.

ActionScript has first-order functions, allows for dynamic typing, and utilizes class as well as prototype inheritance, even for built-in classes. This means you can do neat things to the prototype object associated with any object - even the Function object itself.

Just because the majority of people developing in ActionScript don't utilize the functionality doesn't mean it doesn't exist! Take a minute to look into the language yourself - you might be very surprised.

Definitely. I sat in on a Flash user group meeting last Wednesday (shouts to any FlashcodersNY folks), where Alan Shaw gave a fascinating presentation on prototype-based inheritance in AS3. One of the tricks he showed off involved having one class add methods to the prototypes of other classes at compile time -- to get the same effect with the Java-like static-typed OO that AS3 <i>appears</i> to encourage, you'd need a veritable bouquet of Command and Factory structures. Instead, sprinkling a little prototype stuff in among the traditional OO allowed this particular trick to rest all in one class.

The same thing applies in a lot of areas of AS3 -- you can write a GoF-y 2001-Java-looking app with self-documenting code and doc comments and blah blah blah, and then if it's convenient, you can ALSO use first-class functions with currying and all that geek stuff for statements like (just an abstract example):

newArray = oldArray.map(convertFrom(value)).map(applyTransform(transformParams)).reverse().filter(namesFromLanguage(Language.GERMAN));

Oh that is fascinating. I just recently installed Haxe on my Ubuntu a few hours ago. Hacked a swf after reading the documentation. (Which I believe is lacking.) Do you know of any good Haxe tutorials for a newb in ActionScript land?

I'm afraid I don't know anything about haXe; it doesn't matter if it's a superior language if it makes it harder to collaborate with non-haXe Flash developers and to use Adobe tools such as the Flex SDK.

If you hate having redundant types, I highly recommend using haXe. It has type inference by first-usage so in most cases you don't need to specify any type. If you want to get around the type system it has untyped{} code blocks, casts, and the "Dynamic" type, all of which throw type safety over to the runtime interpreter.

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