ActionScript

What is ActionScript?
ActionScript is an object-oriented scripting and programming language that provides the Adobe Flash Player platform with extensive interactive capabilities. ActionScript syntax is similar to JavaScript (both based on the same ECMAScript standard).

Originally introduced by Macromedia for its Flash authoring tool, ActionScript is now developed and supported by Adobe Systems. The language is open source and both an open source compiler (as part of the Adobe Flex suite) and a virtual machine (Mozilla Tamarin) are available.

With the introduction of Flash 4 in 1999, ActionScript 1.0 was born as a programming language and Flash became truly interactive. Major revisions, 2.0 with object-oriented functions in 2003 (for Flash Player 7) and 3.0 (for Flash Player 9 and 10), followed. Version 3.0 was a fundamental reorganization of the language and a new virtual machine (AVM2) was introduced to run ActionScript 3.0 content.

ActionScript enables the creation and placement of large amounts of content on websites as embedded SWF files compared to static, non-interactive images and videos. ActionScript popularized Flash games for single-player and multiplayer, enabled easy navigation and rich video content, and allowed content to be changed based on user interactions or the framework of the movie being played.

With Flash Player 10, a new Sound API enables custom audio creation in Flash applications.