Flash CS3 Documentation

Programming ActionScript 3.0 > Introduction to ActionScript 3.0 > About ActionScript

About ActionScript

ActionScript is the programming language for the Adobe Flash Player run-time environment. It enables interactivity, data handling, and much more in Flash content and applications.

ActionScript is executed by the ActionScript Virtual Machine (AVM), which is part of Flash Player. ActionScript code is typically compiled into bytecode format (a sort of programming language that's written and understood by computers) by a compiler, such as the one built into Adobe Flash CS3 Professional or Adobe® Flex™ Builder™, or that is available in the Adobe® Flex™ SDK and the Flex™ Data Services. The bytecode is embedded in SWF files, which are executed by the Flash Player, the run-time environment.

ActionScript 3.0 offers a robust programming model that will be familiar to developers with a basic knowledge of object-oriented programming. Some of the key features of ActionScript 3.0 include the following:

• A new ActionScript Virtual Machine, called AVM2, that uses a new bytecode instruction set and provides significant performance improvements
• A more modern compiler code base that adheres much more closely to the ECMAScript (ECMA 262) standard and that performs deeper optimizations than previous versions of the compiler
• An expanded and improved application programming interface (API), with low-level control of objects and a true object-oriented model
• A core language based on the upcoming ECMAScript (ECMA-262) edition 4 draft language specification
• An XML API based on the ECMAScript for XML (E4X) specification (ECMA-357 edition 2). E4X is a language extension to ECMAScript that adds XML as a native data type of the language.
• An event model based on the Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Events Specification

Flash CS3