> Perhaps you can explain how AS3 is "narrow". For years Pascal was THE > language to learn programming then eventually it migrated to "Java" and I > don't consider AS3 to be a limited language or narrow in it's outlook. I > think it's rather a good and accessible first language to learn.
AS3 is designed to do one thing: build Flash applications. Pascal and Java are both general-purpose programming languages. You can build all sorts of different programs in them, and more importantly, you can build programs that are really nothing but wrappers for specific examples, without a lot of extra infrastructure needed to run them. You can write a single Java class and run it from a command prompt. > Your main point may be that AS3 is really a client side language, I'm really > not sure what you perceive as a limitation. As a language it supports just > about all the notions of a modern OO language, so I don't think it's really > limiting at all. > > Most of the programming principles from Java and the like are easily > implemented in AS3, so I have no idea where the problem is. Dealing with concurrency is a common programming problem. I wouldn't want to demonstrate concurrency solutions in AS3. Writing a simple, argument-driven "hello world" program is far easier in Pascal or Java (or especially Python) than AS3. > I would suggest PHP, not as an AS3 look-alike, but as a good compliment to > AS3 - as good as C# as a companion to As3 in the real-world. Sure, PHP is a good complement to AS3, as both can be used to build different parts of web applications. But again, I submit that there is value in learning a general-purpose programming language, which isn't limited to building web applications. The point of learning a second (or third, or Nth) programming language isn't necessarily to perform a specific task, but rather to learn "how to program". A competent programmer can learn new languages for specific tasks as required, because he or she already knows "how to program". The best languages for learning how to program aren't those, like PHP or AS3, designed to solve a specific problem, like building web applications. Focusing on a specific problem domain is great for learning how to solve that single kind of problem, not so great for other things. As a ColdFusion developer, I see the same sort of thing all the time. People learn how to write ColdFusion, as it's very easy, but they develop a tunnel vision of sorts, and they don't understand a lot of things about programming in general (like concurrency) because it's not an issue in that language. Dave Watts, CTO, Fig Leaf Software http://www.figleaf.com/ Fig Leaf Software provides the highest caliber vendor-authorized instruction at our training centers in Washington DC, Atlanta, Chicago, Baltimore, Northern Virginia, or on-site at your location. Visit http://training.figleaf.com/ for more information! _______________________________________________ Flashcoders mailing list [email protected] http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders
