Errata

"...For more information on simulating arrays with set, see chapter 2."

info on set() doesn't seem to be explained in chapter 2...??

firstName = "christine";

function getName (firstName) {
trace(firstName);
}

getName("Kathy");

When running this function in a movie clip, the output window should show the
value "Kathy" replace "christine" as the value for the getName Function. So
far, I've tried call the function from the same frame in the movie clip, and
from the main timeline and the value in the output window is always
"christine".

***Response from the book's editor:***

The author replies: "The reader is doing something wrong. In my opinion
there's no error in the text."

I've also tested the example in the book following the instructions as
provided and have found no error. I concur that the reader must be doing
something wrong.

Most likely, the reader has omitted the firstName parameter from the
function declaration, such as this:

function getName () {
trace(firstName);
}

In such a case, the function would display "Christine" in all cases because
any parameter passed in would be ignored.

If that isn't the cause of the reader's problem, maybe he has the function
defined in multiple places or is testing the *movie* whereas he should be
testing the *scene*.

Can you explain this paragraph a bit more? or maybe give me another example? I don't
quite understand how "Function properties offer the benefits of local variables
without expiring between function invocations" in that duplicate movie clip example.
I tried replacing makeClip.count with just count:

count=0;

function makeClip(theClip)
{
count++;
theClip.duplicateMovieClip(theClip._name+count, count);
}

makeClip(square);

and it gives the same result.
Any help would be appreciated with this.

The book directly states that:

"If the instance's seed clip was created manually (or was duplicated using
duplicateMovieClip() from a clip that was created manually), then the new instance is
placed in the stack above _root."

This is only the case when the seed clip is a movie clip who's _parent is _root. If
the seed clip is a movie clip nested within another movie clip, then this quoted
logic fails because the objects on the _root level that are in higher layers would
obscure the duplicated inner movie clips. An example:

1) Make a 2 layer Flash piece.
2) In the top layer, draw a square.
3) In the bottom layer, draw a square that is lower and to the right
of the previous square such that the top layer square's lower-
right corner and the bottom layer square's upper-left corner
overlap.
4) Select the bottom layer's square that you just drew and press
F8 then Enter (in that order) twice in order to make a movie clip
that is nested within a movie clip (the names of the movie clips
are not important).
5) Double-click this outer movie clip instance in the bottom layer
that you created in the previous step. Then right click the
inner movie clip and select "Actions" from the contextual menu
that pops up to get into the Object Actions panel.
6) In the Object Actions panel, type the following:

onClipEvent (load) {
_root.i++;
if (_root.i < 2) {
this.duplicateMovieClip("duplicatedThis"+_root.i, _root.i);
_parent["duplicatedThis"+_root.i]._x = this._x - 50;
_parent["duplicatedThis"+_root.i]._y = this._y - 50;
}
}

NOTE: It is not good practice to use _root.i++ without defining it as a number
first, but I'm doing it here for the ease of implementing this example.

7) Press CTRL+ENTER to Test Movie (play this Flash piece).

Notice how the square from the top layer still obscures the square in the bottom
layer and ALSO OBSCURES (OVERLAPS) THE DUPLICATED MOVIE CLIP AS WELL.

You will see that when the manually created seed clip (the inner movie clip) is
duplicated using duplicateMovieClip(), the new instance is placed in the stack above
_parent (NOT ALWAYS _root).

Chapter 16, Building a smart clip with a customised interface, Creating a custom interface .swf file;
The explanation to create a custom interface are a little bit fuzzy. Wouldn't it be
possible to insert a very simple example, so that the reader can understand the
basics of how customised interfaces for smart clips work in practice?

Yet the author sends us back to a sample in the code depot (The Playhead Control),
this is perhaps a little bit impressive for the beginner.

Furthermore, it is never specified that parameter values from the exchange clip (xch)
can only be retrieved *after* the first frame of the swf interface (see Flash 5
Studio, 1st edition, Friends of ED, Chapter 2, page 80).

I just found out that example 17-1 on page 377 didn't work for me because
the perl source didn't produce the right header under win32 apache 1.3.22 . This
shouldn't happen to an o'reilly book, because until today you had the status of a
perl competence centre to me.

I used the following echo.pl instead, which worked:

===========CUT====================
#!perl
use CGI;
$q = new CGI;
$e = "output=";

foreach $key ($q->param) {
$value = $q->param($key);
$e .= "$key:$value
";
}
chomp($e);

print $q->header({"Content-Type"=>"application/x-www-urlform-encoded"});

print $e;

===========CUT====================

I think this needs more explanation:

[quote]:
"Note that scenes are flattened into a single timeline during movie playback. That
is, if scene 1's timeline contains 20 frames, and scene 2's timeline contains 10
frames, then we can send the playhead to frame 5 of scene 2 using gotoAndPlay(25);
[end of quote]

This works, I tried it. But when I use gotoAndPlay(_root.targetvar); on a frame in a
scene between other scenes, and targetvar = 175, then the main timeline moves to
frame 175 OF THAT SCENE and not to the 175th frame of that movie.

Text is currently "The character or series of characters at which to break string when forming elements of
an array." To comply with reality, the text should read "The character at which to break string when
forming elements of an array."

Consistent misbehaviour occurs with stringB.split(stringA) when stringA is more than one character - in
that case, split() simply seems to return stringB instead of an array.

For example:

stringB = '<point>The split() method is broken as documented, or<point>The documentation is broken';
testArray = stringB.split('<point>');
trace(testArray[0]);

, where the trace() will return "<point>The split() method is broken as documented, or<point>The
documentation is broken". Minor syntax adjustments do not seem to matter. If '<point>' is replaced with
'@' or anything else unique to stringB, split() works as documented.