Flash 10 Astro

Adobe Flash and the actionscript language continue their rise from their roots as javascript hack to a versatile, well formed language under the guidance of Adobe and it's engineers. Me, I still have not had time to master AS2, but the path of actionscript continues on at an asounding pace, that only full time Flash developers can hope to keep up with. To that end nears the release of Flash 10 astro, on the heels of the ECMA, OO only, Class based structure that is Flash 9, comes many enhancements to the actionscript language including the long touted 3D programmatic classes which can make any of your objects an interactive 3D object, obviously something I look forward to testing:)

some notes from the FP10 page

3D Effects - Easily transform and animate any display object through 3D space while retaining full interactivity. Fast, lightweight, and native 3D effects make motion that was previously reserved for expert users available to everyone. Complex effects are simple with APIs that extend what you already know.

Custom Filters and Effects - Create and share your own portable filters, blend modes, and fills using Adobe Pixel Bender™, the same technology used for many After Effects CS3 filters. Shaders in Flash Player are about 1KB and can be scripted and animated at runtime.

Advanced Text Layout - A new, highly flexible text layout engine, co-existing with TextField, enables innovation in creating new text controls by providing low-level access to text offering right-to-left and vertical text layout, plus support for typographic elements like ligatures.

Enhanced Drawing API - Runtime drawing is easier and more powerful with re-styleable properties, 3D APIs, and a new way of drawing sophisticated shapes without having to code them line by line.

Visual Performance Improvements – Applications and videos will run smoother and faster with expanded use of hardware acceleration. By moving several visual processing tasks to the video card, the CPU is free to do more.

Enhanced Sound APIs – Work with loaded MP3 audio at a lower level in Flash Player 10. The new APIs will let you do application-level audio mixing through ActionScript and even audio filtering with Adobe Pixel Bender.

There was a language reference online at the labs site showing all the new classes, but it appears to have been removed, I will upload a copy for perusal later. Overall some cool stuff, just wish I wasn't falling so far behind the curve.