TABLE OF CONTENTS ActionScript 2 makes it possible to create new, custom classes, but it also includes some essential, ready-to-go classes authored by Macromedia. Through these classes, Flash provides functionality that would otherwise be impossible to achieve. AS2's built-in classes are special because they actually act as interfaces to underlying low-level program code. This low-level code interacts directly with the computer's hardware to control the display, audio output, file I/O, and to get input from the keyboard, mouse, network, etc.
AS2 utilizes many built-in classes, but there are several which are important to this book and which deserve special attention. These include:
The MovieClip Class
The Key Class
The Sound Class
The XML Class
In the next few chapters, each of these classes will be described in detail with typical usage examples.
In many ways, the MovieClip is the class that everything else in the Flash universe revolves around. MovieClips are the onstage performers and the offstage workers that make every Flash application what it is.
In early versions of Flash, MovieClips were constructed and arranged on the stage manually using the Flash design tools. This is still often the case, but the MovieClip class gives the AS2 programmer the ability to create and manipulate MovieClips programmatically through code. The...
