Eric Smith blogs on UX/UI, jobs…and stuff

AS3 Technology Overview: 

They did two things: improved the code structure and functions and improved the Flash player.  Before you had to write a lot of extra code to do what AS3 does more simply and in conjunction with other code-writing standards (Java, C++).  They’ve updated the Flash Player (v.9) to work with the code in a more sophisticated manner.  Complex, predictable functions are now more define in the code base and easily interpreted by the player allowing for more complex functions that run much quicker.

It appears by the changes they’ve made, that AS2 was a pretty complex way of doing things that weren’t designed to be done.  AS3 acknowledges what coders have figured out how to do and what internet users are expecting.

Some bullet points from Adobe’s site:

•  “…ActionScript 3.0 is to create a language ideally suited for rapidly building rich Internet applications.” 
• “…ease of development to facilitate highly complex applications, large datasets, and object-oriented, reusable code bases.” 
• “…ActionScript 3.0 code executes up to 10 times faster than legacy ActionScript code.” 
• “….improving performance and reducing memory usage.” 
• “…resulting in more robust programs…”

Links:
www.zeuslabs.us
www.actionscript.org

Quotes from forum on AS3:

• “From what I have seen, 3.0 looks a lot like JAVA so it’ll be easy for me to migrate to 3.0 (even though I know a lot more C+).”
• “AS3.0 is more alike to Javascript then it is to Java….I don’t really agree that learning AS2.0 will help you to work with AS3.0. They’re almost a world apart, and took me awhile to actually migrate across.  Then again it really depends on what your aim is. If you’re one of those people who just need a play and rewind button, AS2.0 is just fine. I believe AS2.0 was created with animators in mind (during this time, games weren’t very popular), but eventually they decided that it was time to give developers a go, and produced AS3.0. So AS3.0 is for developers, AS2.0 is for animators.”
• “ActionScript 3 is a dream to work with if you know C#, Java or C++, but if what you want to do is “sit down and crank out a Flash game”, and it’s still 2007, I’d say go with ActionScript 2.0.”
• “AS2.0 is a scripting language. AS3.0 is a more powerful programming language.” 

AS3 Recruiting Overview: 

I think the demand for AS3 is going to be big but it’s going to be supplied by finding devs not designers. The changes in AS3 will allow current devs (Java, C++) to migrate much quicker whereas before AS2 was a code of its own that didn’t adhere to current standards.  AS3 has made a big leap that will require a candidate to understand a lot more about databases and code functionality that I think could disassociate creative designers even more.  It will take some time for adoption to emerge but I’m guessing if we start talking looking for people who also have C++, Python, VB, Comp Sci on their resume, we’ll find people who are learning or will be learning AS3.