Comments on Iain Lobb: Flash development - are you doing it wrong?

@Alain Create a document class that can control t...

2011-06-13T18:56:28.938+01:00

@Alain

Create a document class that can control the display list for you with a function(s) for adding and removing children.

#11. Use the flash event system or some derivation to loosen the coupling and create your own custom events to push around data. Definitely reduces lots of reference errors while increasing some boilerplate.

Thx for the hints. About #5 Don't use the main...

2009-07-20T08:47:25.817+01:00

Thx for the hints.
About #5 Don't use the main timeline to organise the "flow" of your site :
what would you advice so ?

i also totally agree with u but i think one point ...

2009-03-03T10:31:00.000Z

i also totally agree with u but i think one point is missing by writing small classes...
write comments for the ASDoc tool.

It will help u to reuse older classes u have been written and makes it easier to share them with the com ;-)

Good summary - I totally agree about these tips!
2009-03-03T08:51:00.000Z
Good summary - I totally agree about these tips!

@Ickydime: correct, library must be well organized, grouping symbols a bit like your classes.

And BTW for the external editor, I'd mention that FlashDevelop is actually designed to work nicely with Flash.

Great post.

I would add to #6 and say that ...

2009-03-02T22:14:00.000Z

Great post.

I would add to #6 and say that it is helpful/important to make your library structure match your code structure. If you have a MenuItem in your library that exports to a class and the code for your MenuItem is in package "project.navigation.menu" then you should create a folder structure in the FLA that mimics your package structure. You could create folders for project/navigation/menu and then place a movieclip in that menu folder called MenuItem. That way, if you need to nudge layout you can quickly find the asset that corresponds to the class you are working in.

all make sense - apart from the final element of p...

2009-03-02T22:13:00.000Z

all make sense - apart from the final element of point 9. Whilst plain English might make searching for class instances easier one letter argument or object instances are much quicker at run-time.

FDT offers a great instance search tool, that checks not just for the name but also class type. It's a good as a global txt based search.

About first point "Don't use code for layout":
...

2009-03-02T20:38:00.000Z

About first point "Don't use code for layout":

I don´t compile with Flash for some reasons like you said, corrupted .fla, debugging, version control, etc. I create a Flexbuilder or FDT project and compile direcly with flex sdk. How do I get the library symbols? It´s easy. I have a fla for that. The application loads the resulting "library.swf". I do it with "bulkloader" library, so it´s easy to access any symbol.

How do I layout?
In that "library.swf" I have some movieclips that I call "LayoutTemplates", that have some rectangles inside. I copy that rentangles x and y (sometimes width and height) to my instances, so the designer can change them whenever he wants.

I agree the rest of your advices.
Good blog!

Do you not like Flex developers or something, I sw...

2009-03-02T19:56:00.000Z

Do you not like Flex developers or something, I swear, lol... J/k :-P Erhm, but yeah, id agree with just about all of this, and a lot of this especially keeping your classes small and doing specific things just seem like common sense... I mean that's some pretty basic good coding practice right there. OH and yeah, DEFIANTLY use a separate tool for editing your AS3 code, my god I can not stand the AS3 editor in Flash. Use Flex builder for that sort, that way you will have access to the profiling and debugging tool as well. Even though Flex is more developer centric id say a lot of this stuff applies to Flex as well.

Good tips from someone who's obviously been in the...

2009-03-02T17:39:00.000Z

Good tips from someone who's obviously been in the trenches a while.

I like the first one especially. Some developers think that using the Flash IDE for layout is not 'real programming' and so spend hours nudging code-defined x/y locs trying to match the designer's comps.

2 more I would add:

Reuse Code when Possible. If you use some code more than once, put it in your code library. Try to abstract out stuff like menus/menu items so you don't keep re-writing the same code.

Use Flex Builder to publish your SWF. This may be more of a personal preference, but I find that using AS3 projects in Flex Builder with 'Build Automatically' turned on is a real time saver over publishing with Flash. It also gives access to FB's debugger.

Build a code library as you go