Just finishing up the last part of the Take a Design Pattern to Work series, and in the process I think that the most important elements are patience and persistence. Rightly so, the main emphasis of any business is to stay in business. That means getting products out the door. So I have come to the conclusion that an incremental approach is best, and all OOP and design patterns need to be introduced as nothing more (or less!) than solutions to everyday challenges.

The main differences between ActionScript and its environment and other programming environments is that they did not go through the same gestation period as did ActionScript nor as tied (ultimately) to ECMAScript. (I know that C# comes to mind, and in many respects it followed a similar path as did ActionScript.) In talking with C++ and Java programmers, the assumption is that OOP is a given and that design patterns are generally what everyone expects in some manner, shape or form. It’s not a debate. ActionScript developers come from different places, and unlike a C++ programmer who has worked in a shop where everyone assumes that good OOP is at work, the ActionScript shop is not the same. For the ActionScript shop, it’s OOP is good, but done is better. Besides the program isn’t that large and we’ve got these designers who are still embedding their code on the Timeline. Let’s not rock the boat with design patterns.

So, rather than announcing

OOP and design patterns are here,

I think we have to introduce,

Here’s a better way that’s easy to change and fix up.

Thanks for your wisdom,
Bill

Just wanted to drop a note and say thanks for taking to the time to explain what the benefits are of using OOP in Actionscript 3.

As you noted time is usually of the essence; and for most people their bosses wanted everything yesterday. However there are still ways on introducing OOP concepts into projects without missing your deadlines and I think your advice on how to introduce your department to these concepts are spot on.

Coming from a procedural programming background I can say to your readers it is 100% worth it to start looking at things from an object oriented perspective; you’d be surprised how much easier it makes your day once accomplished.

Cheers
Digitalosophy

I think that your point about not having time is the crux of the issue. The purpose of this series of posts is to move from a non-OOP/non-DP mindset to an OOP/DP mindset. All of us to some extent are in the same boat. As we do more AS3 programming (which is often no small challenge in and of itself), I hope we can begin getting better at thinking of a problem in terms of DP solutions. That doesn’t mean that we’ll always be successful, especially when there’s a press of time. However, if we never start somewhere, we’ll be doing the same thing five years from now as we’re now doing.

I may have mentioned this before, but at the last OOPSLA meetings, we were talking about the most important, most fundamental OOP habit to get into. Oddly, we came to a quick consensus (imagine any programmers coming to a quick consensus, let alone a bunch of doctoral and industry level programmers!) — use private variables wherever possible. The var statement is really, public var and as such they are open for outside access and values changes you may not want. (Same goes for functions as well.) Where I cannot use a private access modifier, I use protected.

Of course, you’re going to want your constructors and methods that the Client or some other class needs to access to be public, but at least you’ll be able to tell the difference between the types of access and think in terms OOP. For me, “private” really means “encapsulated.”

So rather than trying to drag your work kicking and screaming into OOP or DP, the trick is to change the way you look at solutions and the “easy” way becomes using OOP and DPs.

Cheers,
Bill

The degree in which design patterns can be more easily utilized in common, real world scenarios is of great interest to me.

I firmly believe that due to their modular nature, design patterns are the impetus by which measurable production efficiency can be achieved.

As my AS3 skills mature I am learning the hard way, that it’s not that I don’t have time to utilize design patterns, it’s that I don’t have time, not to.

Thanks for all the great work.

Torture camp!? If it were easy, it wouldn’t be any fun!

Take care,
Bill