Getting Started > What's new in Flash 5 ActionScript

What's new in Flash 5 ActionScript

Flash 5 ActionScript offers exciting new features for creating immersive, interactive Web sites with sophisticated games, forms, surveys, and real-time interactivity such as chat systems.

Flash 5 ActionScript has many new features and syntax conventions that make it similar to the core JavaScript programming language. This manual will explain basic programming concepts such as functions, variables, statements, operators, conditionals, and loops. The ActionScript Dictionary contains a detailed entry for every ActionScript element.

This manual does not attempt to teach programming in general. There are many resources available that provide more information about general programming concepts and the JavaScript language.

The European Computers Manufacturers Association (ECMA) wrote a document called ECMA-262 that was derived from JavaScript to serve as the international standard for the JavaScript language. ActionScript is based on the ECMA-262 specification.

Netscape DevEdge Online has a JavaScript Developer Central that contains documentation and articles useful for understanding ActionScript. The most valuable resource is the Core JavaScript Guide.