Time to get serious about learning ActionScript 3.. put down that Java book and get prepped for the next revolution in Flash.

Here's the link, and oh yeah.. you won't be compiling that with your old Flash 8 IDE.. you'll need to go to the labs and install Flex Builder 2.0

Good stuff in there by the way.. and it's clear that unlearning much of the ActionScript 2 syntax is a necessity for working with AS3..

All of this change in Flash to a more OOP centered, make the Java and .NET developers feel warm and fuzzy when they look at Flex, etc is great for moving Flash into the position of being a more respected and used technology.. but something has been kind of bugging me for a while and I couldn't put my finger on it. Well, after looking through some of the AS3 docs it hit me... how many of the people that have made Flash such a cool technology to play with are going to stick with it? When I went to Flash conferences in the past I didn't feel terribly out of place. I got my degrees in Art and didn't go through the formal computer science degree that a lot of programmers go through, and it seemed that most of the Flash folks that I met who were doing the cutting edge stuff came from art backgrounds. Some of this might be because Flash started out primarily as an animation tool and so the folks who have used it the longest are the art crowd. Flash8 with all the new filter effects, improved video features, etc made those designers happy, but how many of the "designers turned coders" will throw in the towel when they start looking at the necessity to learn AS3? Have you looked over the migration sheet? Gulp..