Actionscript vs Nim
When comparing Actionscript vs Nim, the Slant community recommends Nim for most people. In the question“What is the best programming language to learn first?” Nim is ranked 9th while Actionscript is ranked 63rd. The most important reason people chose Nim is:
There are generics, templates, macros in Nim. They can allow you to write new DSL for your application, or avoid all boilerplate stuff.
Specs
Question Ranking
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.
Pro Great metaprogramming features
There are generics, templates, macros in Nim. They can allow you to write new DSL for your application, or avoid all boilerplate stuff.
Pro Compile-time execution
Nim has built-in VM, which executes macros and some other code at compile time.
For example - you can check if you're on Windows, and Nim will generate code only for it.
Pro Really crossplatform
The same code can be used for web, server, desktop and mobile.
Pro Strict typing
Checks your code at compile time.
Pro Multi paradigm
Imperative, OOP, functional programming in one language.
Pro Easy to read
Nim has a lot of common with Python in terms of syntax.
Indentation-based syntax, for/while loops
Pro Built-in Unicode support
You can use unicode names for variables, there is "unicode" module for operations with unicode
Pro Type interferencing
You only need to specify types in your procedures and objects - you don't need to specify type when you're creating a new variable (unless you're creating it without initialization)
Pro Has built-in unittest module
With built-in "unittest" module you can create test with a very readable code
Pro Garbage-collected
You don't need to deal with all those manual memory allocations, Nim can take care of it!
But also you can use another GC, or tweak it for you real-time application or a game
Pro Easy to integrate with another languages
You can use Nim with any language that can be interfaced with C.
There's a tool which helps you to create new C and C++ bindings for Nim - c2nim
Also you can use Nim with Objective C or even JavaScript (if you're compiling for these backends)
Pro Has built-in async support
Nim has "asyncdispatch" module, which allows you to write async applications.
Pro Supports UFCS (Unified Function Call Syntax)
writeLine(stdout, "hello") can be written as stdout.writeLine("hello")
proc add(a: int): int = a + 5 can be used like 6.add.echo or 6.add().echo()
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 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.
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 Still in pre 1.0
Not very stable and has a rather small community.