Re: FLASH: best director book (is: D for F users)

[John Dowdell]

At 2:17 AM 7/19/0, Dean Kerrigan wrote:

> Does anyone have a recommendation for the best Director book

> available for some one who already knows the basics and is

> competent with Flash actionscripting?


Actually, I haven't seen any book that has taken this approach... "Now that

you know how to work in Flash, how can you transfer those skills to

Director?"


This has been simmering on my back burner for a technote, but hasn't pushed

its way to the top of the stack yet... here are some roughcut notes:


--  Canvas: Both have a stage... you drag things out and arrange them, then

export. Flash's working area is resolution-independent, but Director's

working area uses a fixed pixel size.


--  Library: Flash has a symbol library. Director has a cast library. In

Flash an object on screen *may* be a symbol; in Director every sprite on

screen is *always* a castmember. (Rephrased, every single media element in

Director is in a library.)


--  Timeline: Flash uses nested timelines, and you navigate the object

hierarchy to have one object talk to another. Director uses a single

timeline (for the most part), and messages are broadcast along an explicit

event hierarchy.


--  Events and scoping: In Director, a mouse click on a sprite can be

handled by that sprite's behaviors. If the event is not handled, it can

then be captured and evaluted on any script for that castmember.

(Translation: if a symbol instance doesn't handle the event, then the

symbol master can handle it.) If the event is still not handled then it can

be captured and handled by a script for that frame, or a global-level movie

script. The basic hierarchy for handling events is

sprite->castmember->frame->movie.

    Variables are usually local to a script. There are also global

variables, available from anywhere in the application. A script instance,

such as a drag'n'drop behavior or parent script, can have its own

persistent protected variables too.


There are lots of other differences in media and handling and strategy and

delivery and what-all, but the above are some of the biggest working

differences I see: the Stage is pretty much the same, Libraries are a

little different, the nested timelines of Flash aren't used but a broadcast

method is, and event flow and scope are a bit different.


I'd appreciate if other folks could refine the above, say what was

important to them when they expanded their skills from one to the other...

thanks!


jd






John Dowdell, Macromedia Tech Support, San Francisco CA US

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