ActionScript for Flash MX: The Definitive Guide, Second Edition

This is the Title of the Book, eMatter Edition

Copyright © 2007 O’Reilly & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.

Some Basic Phrases

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11

• The interpreter is always listening for your instructions.

• The interpreter has to read your code, letter by letter, and try to understand it.

This is the same as you trying to read and understand a sentence in a book.

• The interpreter reads your ActionScript using strict rules—if the parentheses in

our trace() statement were missing, for example, the interpreter wouldn’t be able

to understand what’s going on, and the command would fail.

You’ve only just been introduced to the interpreter, but you’ll be as intimate with it

as you are with a lover before too long: lots of fights, lots of yelling—“Why aren’t

you listening to me?!”—and lots of beautiful moments when you understand each

other perfectly. Strangely enough, my dad always told me the best way to learn a new

language is to find a lover that speaks it. May I, therefore, be the first to wish you all

the best in your new relationship with the ActionScript interpreter. From now on, I’ll

regularly refer to “the interpreter” interchangeably with “Flash” when describing

how ActionScript instructions are carried out.

Extra Info Required (Arguments)

You’ve already seen one case in which we provided the interpreter with the text to

display when issuing a trace() command. This approach is common; we’ll often pro- ...