Beginner - should I learn ActionScript?

Comments

• Mells Guru

  January 2013 edited January 2013

  Hi and welcome here,
  
  I would advise you to learn Lua instead and the best book on the subject would probably
  be Learn Lua for iOS Game Development written by Jayant Varma who is a member of this forum under the name @OZApps.
  
  What you can read on the site selling the book :

  What you’ll learn

  Lua basics for iOS

  • How to choose a Lua framework depending on your needs
  • How to use Corona, Gideros, Moai, and more
  • How to use Lua to create a game faster and easier than with Objective-C
  • How to use Lua libraries, wrappers, and third party tools

  Who this book is for
  Beginning iOS developers who find Objective-C difficult but HTML5-based tools too limiting; more advanced iOS developers who want to integrate and open their apps to extension via Lua scripting.

  Then you could visit the Gideros Academy to become a Gideros Jedi.
  

  Likes: OZApps

  twitter@TheWindApps Artful applications : The Wind Forest. #art #japan #apps

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• BJG Member

  January 2013 edited January 2013

  Thanks for the reply. I've been reading up on Lua and OOP in general, but these programming books don't have much to say about graphics, so I was wondering where to get a handle on scenes, frames, etc. I'm not sure how closely these terms match in Gideros and ActionScript.

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• Mells Guru

  January 2013 edited January 2013

  Our forum master who gets ninja'd most of the time would add :

  
  And here are some more tutorials and example on Gideros:
  http://giderostutorials.com/
  http://appcodingeasy.com/Gideros-Mobile
  http://howto.oz-apps.com/
  
  And of course Gideros official materials:
  http://giderosmobile.com/DevCenter/index.php/Ultimate_Guide_to_Gideros_Studio
  http://www.giderosmobile.com/gideros-academy/
  

  I have no doubt that you will find there everything you need to know
  
  Good luck!
  

  twitter@TheWindApps Artful applications : The Wind Forest. #art #japan #apps

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• OZApps Guru

  January 2013 Accepted Answer

  @BJG,
  Today there are many options in terms of programming languages, and of the ones that are pretty popular and that can be used for mobile development, you have
  C, C++, Obj-C, Java, JavaScript, AS3 and Lua (these are very commonly used). From your intro para, it seems that you do not know AS3 nor Lua and are looking at something that can help you create apps. One thing for sure is that Gideros has a lot of similarities to the AS3 language as does Sparrow framework (uses Obj-C and presently only used for iOS)
  
  Thanks @Mells. @BJG, I have authored a book for those that want to start into development and/or for those that want to transition from other frameworks. From the description you gave, you might not have seen this book as yet. The earlier chapters are about Lua and the latter about the framework (includes the graphics, etc) though this is not a picture book nor a book that focuses on a single project, it helps you to learn the basics and apply them to any framework. It cover the basics on how to display images, sprites, sounds, etc. I also have articles on my blog http://howto.oz-apps.com and http://learnlua.oz-apps.com that you can refer to for learning to develop using a Lua framework and these deal with advanced topics and graphics. You might want to read them and see for yourself.
  
  Just a quick suggestion, if you are starting off with Lua frameworks, for the bigger ticket items, you need to first get a grip on the smaller ones; once you get a grip on how it all works you can do a lot more or you can end up being frustrated.
  
  In general anyone that has worked with Lua can vouch for the ease of use and flexibility. So even if you want to use Gideros, Moai or any other Lua framework, you will have to still learn Lua. On the other hand, while Moai is a very powerful and open framework, not everyone can work with it for the same reason, it almost feels like working with C++, it is there that Gideros shines as the framework that can cater to the beginner and be with you all the way when you are an intermediate developer to a master. It has covered a lot of ground in the last few months and you are seeing some really nice number releases of with Gideros.
  
  Ultimately it is up to you on what your aims and requirements from a language/framework is and that will determine if this is the right fit for you or not. One thing that I can assure you of is that you get the best support from the community and it is not concentrated with one or two people dominating like on other forums.
  
  Mells has indeed listed out a very rich repository of links for you, if you read the articles at these links, you should be quite comfortable with Gideros. The official material links back to some articles on other sites not included in the list above.

  twitter: @ozapps | http://www.oz-apps.com | http://howto.oz-apps.com | http://reviewme.oz-apps.com
  Author of Learn Lua for iOS Game Development from Apress ( http://www.apress.com/9781430246626 )
  Cool Vizify Profile at https://www.vizify.com/oz-apps

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• BJG Member

  January 2013

  OK! Thanks for the replies and links, that's very helpful...

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