Arithmetic
I have just finished my first proper AS3 site (about time).
I inherited some work done by another developer, but it was left in a state - I think it got a bit too overwhelming for him. So I decided to rebuild the site structure and add a layer of logic behind the code. I used a simple form of mvc where the control and view were grouped. I also built it with swfAddress in mind. This added considerable complication as I have to have a single point of entry from which I could build the site from. The site structure was also described in xml so that it could be content managed - currently manually. I decided not to use E4X as the xml data’s structure was required. I have used E4X back in AS2, it is good for pulling data out of xml, but not so useful as a way of simply parsing xml into object data. I build a rock-solid XML parser in AS2 which would deserialise xml data into object/array structure. It has been used on hundrends of little jobs over the years and saves hours of development time. But as soon as I step into AS3 all my AS2 libraries are made redundant.
I learnt alot about AS3 whilst building the site. The hardest part was probably dealing with errors - in my case errors which occurred when I had to deal with a dynamic menu structure which may have 0, 1 or n nodes. In AS2 you can get away with using an undefined state as a valid condition, but in AS3 it will trigger a nasty error that will only express itself at runtime. Ouch.
The next phase of development will involve building a fileshare component to allow files to be uploaded/downloaded and commented upon by an administrator and client.
