BadMagicNumber

For assorted reasons, I need to learn Flash programming. I'm not interested in creating little movies or stuff like
that – all I want is to use Flash MX like your average 4GL IDE, and then do some Flash Remoting.

I'm sorry, but the Flash MX IDE sux for developers. Why do I need to care about timelines, and having my buttons
play movies (what's with the obsession with movies, BTW?). I don't care about timelines, or layers or frames per second.

Why can't I put a button on a form, double click on it an see the code it calls? VB, C#.NET, Delphi and PowerBuilder all
work like that – you might think that it was that way for a good reason! But NO! Macromedia now requires me to think like a
designer or something.

The weird thing is that Flash MX seems to have everything an IDE needs – there is a Components pane, a Properties
pane, an Actions pane and a visual form designer. They just don't seem to work like I'd expect.

For example:

1. I put a button on a form. It appears there, and dosn't do anything weird. Good!
2. I double click on it, and nothing happens. Not Good. But I look down, and there in the
   Properties pane is it says “Click Handler”. Looking Hopeful.
3. I double-click the “Click Handler” thing, and it enables me to type in the space next to it. Very Hopeful.
4. I type “testHandler” and press enter. Nothing weird happens, so I presume I have a testHandler function created.
   I'm getting excited now!
5. I double-click on the testHandler thing, hoping to get taken to where I can enter the code. Nothing happens.
   Hmmmm.
6. But wait – there is an “Actions” pane! It says “Actions for testButton (PushButton)”. Okay…
7. I press the little “+” button, and it brings up a menu. I muck around with this for a bit, and I get some code that
   looks like:

   
   	onClipEvent (mouseUp) {
   	    testButton.setLabel("The Name");
   	}
   
   

8. I try running the movie, and pressing the button doesn't do anything. Depressing. I muck around with the
   code a lot, and it still doesn't do anything Very Depressing.

9. arhrhrhhhhh!
10. I quit in Flash MX in disgust.

Now obviously Flash can detect a button press and then do something. This means either I'm stupid, or that I'm missing
some important concept that I need to understand to use Flash. I think it's the second option (could well be wrong, though),
and I guess I'll just keep trying until I figure it out. (Don't suggest the help – it doesn't.)

My point is that it shouldn't be this hard! It took me less time to figure out how to do the same thing in C/Motif
than in Flash, and that (a) didn't have an IDE, and (b) was on a AMD586, on Linux, using Lestif instead of Motif.

I think the key to it all is that “testHandler” on the button. If I could figure out where the code for that is
hidden then I think I'd be okay.

A quick pointer for all you Aussie Java Programmers. Check out
the Australia Java User's Group mailing list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ajug/

It's not dependant on AJUG membership or anything (I'm not a member, although I
have been to the occasional AJUG-Adelaide meeting), and in the last couple of months
has had some interesting discussion.

It doesn't compare to the DevelopMentor AdvancedJava list ( http://discuss.develop.com/advanced-java.html )
for depth of discussion, but is less intimidating to post “silly questions” to.

In my prior life as a Delphi programmer, I used to inhabit the Delphi mailing lists (in their many forms), and
I have to say they were a lot better than any Java mailing list. Of course, there aren't as many active Delphi communities
as Java communities, so you'd see the same names poping up all the time. Occasionally I think I recognize one who's
crossed over into Java – for instance I think Glen Stampoultzis
of POI fame used to be a Australian Delphi guy, too.

Speaking of Aussie Java Programmers (or not): Win32
AJP documentation. ahhrggg!