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Fixed vandalism from user 71.46.56.83 dating back to 11 September 2020, in the Syntax and Data structures sections. See the comparison between revisions 977825244 and 976801600 (https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=ActionScript&diff=977825244&oldid=976801600) for why these changes were obvious vandalism. |
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ActionScript is used primarily for the development of websites and software targeting the [[Adobe Flash]] platform, originally finding use on [[web page]]s in the form of embedded [[SWF]] files.
ActionScript 3 is also used with the [[Adobe AIR]] system for the development of desktop and mobile applications. The language itself is [[open-source]] in that its specification is offered free of charge<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://help.adobe.com/livedocs/specs/actionscript/3/wwhelp/wwhimpl/js/html/wwhelp.htm |title=ActionScript 3 Language Specification |access-date=November 12, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170327122455/http://help.adobe.com/livedocs/specs/actionscript/3/wwhelp/wwhimpl/js/html/wwhelp.htm |archive-date=March 27, 2017 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }}</ref> and both an open-source compiler (as part of [[Apache Flex]]) and open-source virtual machine ([[Tamarin (software)|Tamarin]]) are available.
ActionScript was also used with [[Scaleform GFx]] for the development of three-dimensional video-game user interfaces and [[heads up display]]s.
==Overview==
ActionScript was initially designed for controlling simple two-dimensional [[vector graphics|vector]] animations made in Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash). Initially focused on animation, early versions of Flash content offered few interactivity features, thus had very limited scripting ability. Later versions added functionality allowing for the creation of web-based games and [[rich web application]]s with streaming media (such as video and audio). Today, ActionScript is suitable for desktop and mobile development through Adobe AIR; it is used in some database applications and in basic robotics as in [[Make Controller Kit]].
Flash MX 2004 introduced ActionScript 2.0, a [[scripting language]] more suited to the development of Flash applications. Saving time is often possible by scripting something rather than animating it, which usually also enables a higher level of flexibility when editing.
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Since the arrival of the Flash Player 9 alpha (in 2006), a newer version of ActionScript has been released, ActionScript 3.0. This version of the language is intended to be compiled and run on a version of the [[Tamarin (software)|Tamarin]] virtual machine, formerly ActionScript Virtual Machine 2, that was also fully rewritten (dubbed AVM2).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.adobe.com/devnet/actionscript/articles/six_reasons_as3.html |last1=Brimelow |first1=Lee |title=Six reasons to use ActionScript 3.0 |publisher=Adobe Systems Incorporated |date=August 18, 2008|access-date=June 18, 2010}}</ref> Because of this, code written in ActionScript 3.0 is generally targeted for Flash Player 9 and higher, and will not work in prior versions. At the same time, ActionScript 3.0 executes up to 10 times faster than legacy ActionScript code due to the [[Just-in-time compilation|just-in-time compiler]] enhancements.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.adobe.com/devnet/actionscript/articles/actionscript3_overview.html |last1=Grossman |first1=Gary |last2=Huang |first2=Emmy |title=ActionScript 3.0 overview |publisher=Adobe Systems Incorporated |date=June 27, 2006|access-date=June 18, 2010}}</ref>
Flash [[library (software)|libraries]] can be used with the XML abilities of the browser to render rich content in the browser. This technology is known as Asynchronous Flash and XML, much like AJAX. Adobe offers its Flex product line to meet the demand for rich web applications built on the Flash runtime, with behaviors and programming done in ActionScript. ActionScript 3.0 forms the foundation of the Flex 2 application programming interface ([[API]]).
==History==
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* '''Flash Player 5''': Included in the first version of ActionScript, it used [[prototype-based programming]] based on ECMAScript,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-262.htm |title=Standard ECMA-262 |publisher=Ecma-international.org |access-date=April 22, 2013}}</ref> and allowed full [[procedural programming]] and object-oriented programming. Design based development.
* '''Flash Player 6''' added an event-handling model, accessibility controls, and support for [[switch statement|switch]]. The first version with support for the [[Action Message Format]] (AMF) and [[Real-Time Messaging Protocol]] (RTMP) allowed for on demand audio/video streaming.
* '''Flash Player 7''': Additions to it include Cascading Style Sheets ([[CSS]]) styling for text and support for ActionScript 2.0, a programming language based on the ECMAScript 4 [[Netscape]] Proposal<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mozilla.org/js/language/es4.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070711065258/http://www.mozilla.org/js/language/es4.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 11, 2007 |title=ECMAScript 4 Netscape Proposal |publisher=[[Netscape]] |editor=Waldemar Horwat |date=June 30, 2003 |access-date=April 11, 2019}}</ref> with [[Class (computer programming)|class]]-based [[Inheritance (object-oriented programming)|inheritance]]. However, ActionScript 2.0 can [[cross compile]] to ActionScript 1.0 [[bytecode]], so that it can run in Flash Player 6.
* '''Flash Player 8''' further extended ActionScript 1/ActionScript 2 by adding new class libraries with APIs for controlling bitmap data at run-time, file uploads, and live filters for blur and
* '''Flash Player 9 (initially called 8.5)''' added ActionScript 3.0 with the advent of a new virtual machine, called [[ActionScript Virtual Machine 2]] (AVM2), which coexists with the previous AVM1 needed to support legacy content. Performance increases were a major objective for this release of the player, including a new [[Just-in-time compilation|just-in-time]] (JIT) compiler. Support for binary sockets, [[ECMAScript for XML]] (E4X) XML parsing, full-screen mode, and regular expressions were added. This is the first release of the player to be titled Adobe Flash Player.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer |title=Flash Player | Adobe Flash Player 11 | Overview |publisher=Adobe.com |date=April 9, 2013 |access-date=April 22, 2013}}</ref>
* '''Flash Player 10 (initially called Astro)''': Added basic [[3D computer graphics|3D]] manipulation, such as rotating on the X, Y, and Z axis, a 3D drawing API, and [[texture mapping]]. Ability to create custom filters using [[Adobe Pixel Bender]]. Several visual processing tasks are now offloaded to the [[GPU]] which gives a noticeable decrease to rendering time for each frame, resulting in higher [[frame rate]]s, especially with [[H.264]] video. There is a new sound API which allows for custom creation of audio in flash, something that has never been possible before.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashplayer10/ |title=Adobe Labs – Adobe Flash Player 10.1 |publisher=Labs.adobe.com |access-date=December 17, 2009| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100105125609/http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashplayer10/| archive-date= January 5, 2010 | url-status= live}}</ref> Furthermore, Flash Player 10 supports Peer to Peer ([[Peer-to-peer|P2P]]) communication with [[Real Time Media Flow Protocol]] (RTMFP).
* '''Flash Player 11''': The major addition in this version are the [[Stage3D]]-based advanced (graphic card accelerated) 3D capabilities for Windows Desktop, Mac Desktop, [[iOS]], [[Android (operating system)|Android]], and other major platforms. Significant compatibility improvements have been added for the iOS platform, and other non-desktop platforms. Other features include H.264 encoding for cameras, Native [[JSON]] support, [[Bézier curve|Cubic Bézier Curves]], a secure [[random number generator]], [[LZMA]] compression for SWF files, workers to offload some code execution to other processor threads, graphics card accelerated camera feed rendering, memory intrinsics and performance analysis, and the ActionScript Compiler 2.0, as well as some other minor additions.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://download.macromedia.com/pub/labs/flashplatformruntimes/shared/flashplayer11_air3_b1_releasenotes_071311.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110714222550/http://download.macromedia.com/pub/labs/flashplatformruntimes/shared/flashplayer11_air3_b1_releasenotes_071311.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=2011-07-14 |title=Flash Player 11 and AIR 3 Release Notes for Adobe Labs}}</ref>
* '''Flash Player 11.2''': released in March 2012, focused on adding features that are key for the gaming and video markets. Some of the features in the release include the following: Mouse-lock support. Right and middle mouse-click support. Context menu disabling. Hardware-accelerated graphics/Stage 3D support for Apple iOS and Android via Adobe AIR. Support for more hardware accelerated video cards (from January 2008) in order to expand availability of hardware-accelerated content. New Throttle event API (dispatches event when Flash Player throttles, pauses, or resumes content). Multithreaded video decoding pipeline on PCs, which improves overall performance of video on all desktop platforms. Notification of use of premium features in the debug players; content runs unrestricted in the release players.
* '''Flash Player 11.3''': released in June 2012, focused on enabling features and functionality key for the gaming market, as well as addressing popular feature requests from developers. Some of the features in this release include the following: Keyboard input support in full-screen mode. Improved audio support for working with low-latency audio. Ability to progressively stream textures for Stage 3D content. [[Protected mode]] for Flash Player in [[Firefox]]. Frame label events. Support for compressing BitmapData to [[JPEG]] and [[PNG]] formats. Support for [[Mac OS X]] [[Mac App Store|App Store]] application sandboxing requirements. Text streaming support for Stage 3D. Expanded information about GPU [[device driver|driver]] details. Bitmap draw with quality API (new). Release outside mouse event API. Flash Player silent update support for Mac OS. Stylus support for Android 4.0 devices (Adobe AIR). USB debugging for iOS (Adobe AIR). iOS simulator support (Adobe AIR).
* '''Flash Player 11.4''': Released in August 2012, it focused on enabling features and functionality that are key for the gaming market, as well as addressing popular feature requests from developers. Some of the features in this release include ActionScript workers (enables concurrent ActionScript execution on separate threads), support for advanced profiling, [[LZMA]] compression support for ByteArray, support for hardware-accelerated video cards for Stage 3D expanded to 2006, improved ActionScript performance when targeting Apple iOS, performance index API to inform about performance capabilities of current environment, support for compressed textures with alpha support, support for StageVideo.attachCamera API, and support for push notifications for iOS (Adobe AIR).
* '''Flash Player 11.5''': Released in November 2012, it focused on performance improvement and stability. Some of the features in this release include shared ByteArray support for ActionScript workers, debug [[stack trace]] in release builds of Flash Player, and various bug fixes.
* '''Flash Player 11.6''': Released in March 2013, it focuses on performance improvements, security enhancements, and stability. Some of the features in this release include ability to query graphics vector data at runtime, full-screen permission dialog user interface improvements, ability to load SWFs at runtime when deploying as an AIR application in AOT mode on iOS, finer-grained control over supported display resolution on iOS devices when deploying as an AIR application, HiDPI support for Flash Professional, and ActionScript 3 access to fast memory operations/intrinsics.
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====2006–2020: ActionScript 3.0====
In June 2006, ActionScript 3.0 debuted with [[Adobe Flex|Adobe Flex 2.0]] and its corresponding player, [[Adobe Flash Player|Flash Player 9]]. ActionScript 3.0 was a fundamental restructuring of the language, so much so that it uses an entirely different [[virtual machine]]. Flash Player 9 contains two virtual machines, AVM1 for code written in ActionScript 1.0 and 2.0, and AVM2 for content written in ActionScript 3.0. ActionScript 3.0 added limited support for [[hardware acceleration]] ([[DirectX]], [[OpenGL]]).
The update to the language introduced several new features:
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===ActionScript 2.0===
The following code, which works in any compliant player, creates a text field at depth 0, at position (0, 0) on the screen (measured in
<syntaxhighlight lang="actionscript">
createTextField("greet", 0, 0, 0, 100, 100);
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</syntaxhighlight>
Minimal ActionScript 3.0 programs may be somewhat larger and more complicated due to the increased separation of the programming language and the Flash [[integrated development environment|IDE]].
Presume the following file to be {{Mono|Greeter.as}}:
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* '''Boolean''': The [[Boolean data type]] has only two possible values: true and false or 1 and 0. No other values are valid.
* '''int''': The int data type is a 32-bit [[integer]] between -2,147,483,648 and 2,147,483,647.
* '''Null''': The Null data type contains only one value, null. This is the default value for the String data type and all classes that define complex data types, including the Object class.
* '''Number''': The Number data type can represent integers, [[signedness|unsigned]] integers, and [[floating-point]] numbers. The Number data type uses the 64-bit double-precision format as specified by the [[IEEE]] Standard for Binary Floating-Point Arithmetic ([[IEEE 754|IEEE-754]]). The Number type can store integers between -9,007,199,254,740,992 (-2<sup>53</sup>) to 9,007,199,254,740,992 (2<sup>53</sup>), and floating
* '''String''': The String data type represents a sequence of 16-bit characters. Strings are stored internally as Unicode characters, using the [[UTF-16]] format. Previous versions of Flash used the UTF-8 format.
* '''uint''': The uint (unsigned integer) data type is a 32-bit unsigned integer between 0 and 4,294,967,295.
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