Book Image

HTML5 for Flash Developers

By : Matthew Fisher
Book Image

HTML5 for Flash Developers

By: Matthew Fisher

Overview of this book

As the support for HTML5 within modern web browsers grows, the appeal of HTML5 development, especially for Flash developers, is at an all-time high. From 3D interactive multi-user content to high definition video streaming, HTML5 can deliver it all, to almost all modern web browsers, desktops, and mobile platforms. HTML5 for Flash Developers is a practical, targeted guide for developers with previous experience in developing applications in Flash who would like to add HTML5 development to their skill set. By understanding key aspects that make HTML5 development different from Flash you will be able to integrate your current skill set into the HTML5 development paradigm. Starting with identifying the key technologies that make up the HTML5 development stack and how they are utilized to create HTML5 content, HTML5 for Flash Developers will cover the traditional HTML5 application development flow chapter by chapter, while covering many other common tools that are regularly used in HTML5 today.In addition to understanding and writing dependency-free HTML5 code, you will also learn how to build your HTML5 applications on top of popular libraries and frameworks such as jQuery and CreateJS. This book covers how to prepare all of your content and media for integration into your HTML5 application using applications such as the Miro Video Converter or Adobe Photoshop. You will learn ways to not only continue to use Adobe Flash in your HTML5 application content preparation flow, but also how to port your existing Flash content right over to HTML5.Once you understand what it takes to build HTML5 content, you will finish up by learning how to debug, optimize, and prepare your content for release on the Web.
Table of Contents (17 chapters)
HTML5 for Flash Developers
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.packtpub.com
Preface
Index

Syntax differences


Now that we have some media to work with and the browser tools at our disposal, let's start some more toying with JavaScript and compare its syntax to what you already know in ActionScript 3.

Variables

Unlike variables declared within ActionScript 3, JavaScript variables are not strictly typed. This takes the familiar ActionScript 3 variable declaration from:

var myVariable:String = 'abc123';

to a simpler syntax within JavaScript which looks as follows:

var myVariable = 'abc123';

This lack of strict typing is referred to as dynamic typing. Variables in JavaScript can be used as any type at any time. Consider this example:

var exampleVar;                      // A undefined variable
exampleVar = "Some example text";    // Variable is now a String
exampleVar = 12345;                  // Variable is now a Number

Dynamic typing allows code to be writing faster by requiring less input from the developer, but this development ease comes at the cost of debugging large applications...