[osflash] Anybody interest in developing a new compiler?

[Samuel Agesilas]

Zwetan,

I agree with Nicolas, if you take for instance MTASC, IMHO opinion it  
produces better optimized byte code than the old Macromedia Flash  
compiler itself and that is one of the great things about having an  
open source compiler. The community can get involved and make it  
better. As for more basis for saying that Actionscript 3 really is an  
immature language is as follows....

1. Arrays or non existent in Actionscript. I know Adobe claims to  
have Arrays but Arrays in Actionscript are not Arrays they are  
Vectors and that is a HUGE distinction. Vectors while more flexible  
and easier to use are slower and consume more memory.

for example in Java you would declare in arrray like so...

n = int[10]

if you try to access index 11 in array n, an IndexOutOfBounds  
Exception is thrown. Same for C#, Objective C and obviously C. This  
is fundamental and basic to all professional languages and  
Actionscript 3 doesn't have it? Why? Who knows but it's not there.

2. No method overloading.  The reason for this is that The VM does  
not store detailed enough method signatures at runtime. Meaning that  
while obviously the name and the modifiers are stored ( public,  
private, namespace, etc ). It does not store information about method  
arguments like Java does. It uses a very arcane method borrowed from  
Javascript of using indices instead of the actual argument name.  
Again in Java you can the declare the following...

setName( String name );
setName( String f_name, String l_name );

In the same class and they are treated completed different because  
Java recognizers the argument type. While Actionscript just using  
argument order which is just ridiculous, IMHO.

3. Actionscript 3 does not have support for Abstract Classes

4. Actionscript 3 does not support private constructors.... This is a  
huge problem Actionscript 2 did, and now Actionscript 3 does not. For  
the life of me I don't get that decision at all.

5. Actionscript 3 does not support native Enums like Java and C++./C#  
do.

6. Try Catch exceptions are not forced. Meaning if a calling method  
implements a throws method unlike in Java, in Actionscript 3 you do  
NOT have to surround the calling method with a try...catch block.


Everything that I mentioned above is pretty basic stuff. When I  
switch from a more robust language like C++ or Java and go back to  
Actionscript 3 I feel like I'm coding in Javascript... LOL. Don;t get  
me wrong I absolutely love Flash. Java sucks big time when it comes  
to displaying anything on the screen that looks cool! And Flash wins  
that battle every-time but, let's "Keep it Real" here... while  
Actionscript 3 is far better than Actionscript 2, it still lags  
behind other languages for no real apparent reason.

Another gripe I have is with the developer tools that we get from  
Adobe. Being a long time GCC and javac user when I have to use mxmlc,  
I feel like pulling my hair out. Fcsh, is a perfect example of a tool  
that shows promise but is really crappy to use and since we don't  
have access to the source code for fcsh the flash community can't fix  
any of the numerous problems it has. So we have to wait until Adobe  
decides to fix the problem ( assuming they acknowledge a problem  
exists! ). Making an open source compiler and tools allow us ( the  
community ), to deal with these issues in the way we see fit.

my two ( or rather three ) cents
Sam




Take for instance the
On Sep 10, 2007, at 7:01 PM, Nicolas Cannasse wrote:

>>> 8 and lower) or AVM2(Flash 9). I think a Flash 9 is needed. While
>>> Actionscript 3 is a great improvement it's a far cry from far more
>>> mature and professional languages like Objective C, C# or even Java.
>>
>> oh really ?
>> and on what basis are you asserting that ?
>
> I would say that common sense is enough.
>
> Clearly, AS3 chose to implement some rather unorthodox features  
> (such as
> namespaces) but neglected some interesting features that have been
> available in highlevel languages for decades and have been proved very
> useful in practice.
>
> A few examples : generics (typed arrays), iterators, strictly typed
> functions, polymorphism, anonymous objects, type inference, enums...
>
> Now, there are two possibilities :
>
>    a) AS3 is the next big thing, and all the research done in
> programming language for years is worth nothing, and all the great
> people working on C#, Java, etc are wrong about thinking programmers
> need these features.
>
>    b) something is wrong with AS3
>
> IMHO, I would favor to the (b) solution.
>
> Now, if you look for example at haXe from a programming language
> features point of view, you'll find a mature and professional language
> that targets Flash Player 6-9 and offer far more possibilities than  
> AS3.
>
> That's all for today rant :)
>
> Nicolas
>
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