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Learning Actionscript through Processing (Read 2694 times)
flare389
Learning Actionscript through Processing
Apr 22nd, 2008, 12:58am  
Hey everyone,

I came across Processing the other day and it looks like a promising way to learn how to program, especially for people coming from a visual design background. What I want to learn is actually Actionscript 3, if I learn Processing will it make it easier to pick up Actionscript or should I save myself some time and go directly to Actionscript?

Thanks,

Caleb
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Manic
Re: Learning Actionscript through Processing
Reply #1 - Apr 26th, 2008, 4:12pm  
it won't hurt, but you might find that you run into problems like "well, i can do that in processing, why's it so hard in actionscript?"

Syntax wise, they're pretty much the same, but with a few quirks and curiosities between them.
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st33d
Re: Learning Actionscript through Processing
Reply #2 - Apr 26th, 2008, 5:35pm  
Hahaha

I find it easier doing stuff in actionscript really, because the design part allows me to position bitmaps and everything without having to code it all.

But Processing is a good start. You'll find it easier to learn in Processing and then move to AS3. It's always tricky moving from language to language, but knowing the essence of writing good code is more important. Plus having more languages under your belt helps you think outside the box.
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Ira
Re: Learning Actionscript through Processing
Reply #3 - Apr 26th, 2008, 7:30pm  
I'm teaching a Processing class and an AS3 class back-to-back this semester, with one (poor) student in both. The Processing class in general has been much easier, primarily since I didn't have to deal with display lists, OOP and a bloated API on day 1 (I chose not to begin with AS2 and transition into AS3). The student also reported that the Processing class was easier (at least the 1st half of the semester).

Once we started dealing with some web apps/databases, AS3 did offer some advantages.
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Processing: Creative Coding and Computational Art
http://friendsofed.com/book.html?isbn=159059617X

The Essential Guide to Processing for Flash Developers
http://www.friendsofed.com/book.html?isbn=9781430219798

Center of Creative Computation
Meadows/Lyle
SMU, Dallas
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jeanine
Re: Learning Actionscript through Processing
Reply #4 - Apr 26th, 2008, 8:19pm  
I am going in the opposite direction. I teach an introductory programming class, called Programming Games, using JavaScript and then Flash and ActionScript 3.0.  This is the first semester we are doing ActionScript 3.0 and have had to deal with classes. We are considering starting with Processing in the Computer Science I class and then moving on to Java. I found Processing much easier than Java and we are hoping the students will appreciate this as a start.

In Flash and ActionScript, it is possible to handle and move objects on the screen independently and set up a large number of events and event handling.  I think this will be somewhat more difficult in Processing.

I have small examples and tutorials and notes on my website and would appreciate comments: http://newmedia.purchase.edu/~Jeanine
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« Last Edit: May 2nd, 2008, 8:54pm by jeanine »  
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mmick66
Re: Learning Actionscript through Processing
Reply #5 - Apr 28th, 2008, 2:01pm  
The answer can be much simpler folks Wink ... There are loads of jobs in Flash Development, some pay up to 500£ a day up here in London town, so my view is, learn Actionscript 3 which is a decent enough OOP language and you can start using your skills str8 away at work where you are going to get some solid experience running behind deadilines and the like, and THEN you can apply most of it in Processign... have a look at http://levitated.net/gravityIndex.html, a lot of advanced real time graphics in Flash... all that can easily be applied in Processing when you get a good grip of the syntax...
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Mike!
 
Manic
Re: Learning Actionscript through Processing
Reply #6 - Apr 28th, 2008, 10:21pm  
that site's really interesting mmick, I had a look at a few and began by thinking they were ridiculously hard to make, then looked at the source and found that they were cheating, they'd made it look much harder than it was.

bookmarked.
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st33d
Re: Learning Actionscript through Processing
Reply #7 - Apr 28th, 2008, 11:05pm  
Ahem, yes that's Jared Tarbell's Flash work.

His Processing work is here:

http://www.complexification.net/

I would still caution that learning how to program, rather than learning a language is the issue here. I got a job doing Flash work with a portfolio of mostly Processing examples. I still think that Processing is a good start for the absolute beginner. It has fewer quirks than Flash and the community is geared towards teaching. I still come here for advice with algorithms rather than ask a Flash forum.
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blprnt
Re: Learning Actionscript through Processing
Reply #8 - May 2nd, 2008, 7:06pm  
I have been teaching an ActionScript course for 5 years or so and changed the curriculum last term to begin with Processing as an introduction to programming. The response was overwhelmingly positive - students were excited to be able to create interesting tools on the first day, and it let them get a grip on what programming is about without having to wade through a bunch of preliminaries in AS3.
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http://blprnt.com > Digital curiosities in Flash and Processing&&
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