> I am wondering, though, if I would get this for "free" if I used > DisplayObject and the built- > in drag events. I am also wondering, if I am saving that much in terms of > memory and > speed, by "rolling my own" as it were.
If you make each draggable item (each shape) its own DisplayObject then yes, you'll get some optimizations for free, such as bitmap caching. You'll also get the benefit of the fact that the drawing "loop" is at least written in native code (the display list), and may even have some additional optimizations helping you depending on your specific dataset (dirty rectangle lists, etc.). Finally, by making each object a DisplayObject instead of managing the shapes yourself, you get a huge amount of "features" for free, such as alpha, filters, sort order, scaling, rotation... all those nice, native things DisplayObjects do. Troy.
