what is a program?

a creative process for building things

• design
• engineering
• implementation

evolves as an iterative process

• test
• evaluate
• refine / refactor

constructed via a nested process

• functional decomposition
• reuse
• composition

what is our development enviroment for this class?

Adobe Flash

key panels:

• help (especially the ActionScript Language Reference) - also available online
• actions
• output
• stage
• library
• toolbar

handy keys (memorize them!):

• CTRL-n (creates a new file)
• F1 (opens help panel; if a word was hilighted in the actions panel, help will open to it)
• CTRL-u (brings up preferences window, actionscript editor tab has syntax coloring settings)
• F5 / SHFT-F5 (in timeline, adds / removes frames)
• F6 / SHFT-F6 (in timeline, adds / removes keyframes)
• CTRL-t (in actions window, checks syntax)
• CTRL-SHFT-f (in actions window, performs auto-format)
• CTRL-ENTER (tests current file)
• CTRL-w (closes current window; when testing, returns to authoring environment)
• SHFT-F12 (publishes current file)
• CTRL-SHFT-F12 (brings up publishing settings)

 

how do we begin?

• thoughts and discussion
• pen and paper
• sketches and plans—directions

how do we proceed?

• simple goals
• small but steady progress
• constant testing and re-evaluating
• constant testing and re-evaluating