Actionscript Review

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Review of Actionscript powered by the Slant community.

Adobe AIR & Flash programming language

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Pros

Pro
Great for light games

Easy 2D and rich 3D capabilities means ActionScript is a great game prototyping or production tool. Relatively easy to get images on a stage and easy to share with it's wide platform support.

Pro
Wide compatability

Runs on all major platforms as an AIR executable or mobile app, as well as in-browser as a FLASH file.

Pro
Object-oriented

Teaches strong typed habits and follows many conventions of major programming languages.

Pro
Large community

Online games and a colorful history means there are a lot of existing scripts and examples on the internet for available integration as well as tutorials.

Cons

Con
No future

The last stable release is : 3.0 / June 27, 2006. Adobe confirmed there will be no 4.0, ever. This train has stopped long time ago.

Con
Not very widely used

Past its hay-day, ActionScript is reserved for more niche products. This in turn means that choosing ActionScript as a career path is often ill-advised. Exceptions include ScaleForm for UI/UX in games (including AAA games) and light apps and games.

Con
Waning support

Un-usable in-browser on most mobile devices, ActionScript is used mainly for niche AIR programs, graphical mobile and in-browser apps and games, and in UI/UX using Scaleform.