Thinking Like The Enemy

Introduction

"To defeat the enemy you must think like the enemy"

Learning to program is really all about perspective. Approaching actionscript from a designers perspective isn't much help because we see the world as subjects, form and content (and layers :). To successfully program, you need the cold, hard problem solving perspective of a programmer. You need to identify the problem (task) then set about creating a step-by-step solution. That's all Actionscript is. A step-by-step list of instructions, the computer executes in order to accomplish a task. This list can be as simple or as complicated as you like. For instance the command,

Go to and Play (1)

is a very simple instruction. When the playhead reaches the frame containing this action it executes and jumps to the first frame of the movie. Programming is essentially a problem solving task and is best approached by breaking down the problem into its major subproblems and by solving the subproblems, you ultimately solve the whole problem.

In this tutorial we will work through a real life example to help you relate to how a programmer thinks. Then we'll work on solving an actionscript problem. By the end of it you should have a better understanding of how to develop actionscript! In next few pages you will develop an understanding of the mental processes needed for programming. A process which usually takes years of dungeon and dragons, fizzy drinks and babylon 5 re-runs to develop.

But before we go any further I must stress - Practise Makes Perfect!!!