The scripting language used for Flash is ActionScript which is based on ECMAScript from which JavaScript is also derived.

1. The Features Of ActionScript 2.0 And ActionScript 3.0
The scripting language used for Flash is ActionScript which is based on ECMAScript from
which JavaScript is also derived. One can find excessive use of Adobe Flash and
ActionScript 3.0 in mobiles, desktops, smart phones, tablets, televisions, laptops and
digital pads. The following are the major advantages of Flash.
1. Cross-browser compatibility
Flash is browser independent. It has no issues with cross browser compatibility. Flash
Programmers need not worry about the HTML and CSS code being interpreted differently
in different browsers. As long as the Flash player plug-in is installed on the user´s
computer, Flash content could be viewed without any issues.
2. Interactivity
Flash supports audio, animation, and advanced video handling and interactivity. Flash is
vector-based, but allows incorporation of bitmaps. Flash applications can collect data,
online games, feedback forms, photo slide show, audio, movies, charts, shopping carts,
and different web applications that server-side scripts can do, thus making the website
more interactive and expressive.
ActionScript 3.0 is much more structured and object oriented compared to ActionScript
2.0. Flash Developers from other languages are likely to be comfortable with the stricter
type checking system, improved class inheritance system, better debugging, and unified
event handling in ActionScript 3.0. But for developers who learned ActionScript 2.0, the
transition to ActionScript 3.0 can be bit intimidating. Most of the code examples found
that are written in ActionScript 2.0 will not be compatible when written in ActionScript
3.0.
A Flash Player includes two virtual machines so that it can support ActionScript 3.0 as it
evolves, while still supporting legacy ActionScript 2.0 and ActionScript 1.0 content. If a
programmer already knows and is comfortable with programming games in ActionScript
2.0, he/she can continue with it as Flash Player is backwards compatible with the code.
There are, however, many reasons why one must take time to learn ActionScript 3.0.
The primary motive is performance. Game developers tend to push Flash Player
performance to the edge as they create amazing browser-based games. Flash can be
used to replace text elements on HTML Web pages with Flash equivalents. This image
replacement technique is called Scalable Inman Flash Replacement. Code written in
ActionScript 3.0 can run 10 times faster than ActionScript 2.0 code. ActionScript 3.0 has
introduced support for hardware acceleration, which will only continue to improve
performance going forward.
Now let us compare the features of ActionScript 2.0 and ActionScript 3.0
ActionScript 2.0
ActionScript 2.0 was introduced in September 2003 with the release of Flash MX 2004
and along with its corresponding play Flash Player 7. ActionScript 2.0 was used for larger
and more complex applications. It featured compile-time type checking and class-based
syntax, such as the keywords class and extends. With ActionScript 2.0, developers could
constrain variables to a specific type by adding a type annotation so that type mismatch
errors could be found at compile-time. ActionScript 2.0 also introduced class-based
inheritance syntax so that developers could create classes and interfaces, much as they
would in class-based languages such as Java and C++. This version confirmed partially
to the ECMAScript Fourth Edition draft specification.

2. ActionScript 3.0
In June 2006, ActionScript 3.0 was released along with Adobe Flex 2.0 and its
corresponding player, Flash Player 9. ActionScript 3.0 was a fundamental restructuring
of the language, that it uses an entirely different virtual machine. Flash Player 9 contains
two virtual machines, AVM1 for code written in ActionScript 1.0 and 2.0, and AVM2 for
content written in ActionScript 3.0. Actionscript 3.0 added limited support for hardware
acceleration (DirectX, OpenGL).
The update to the language introduced several new features:
•Compile-time and run-time type checking and type information exists at both compile-
time and runtime.
•Improved performance from a class-based inheritance system than that of the
prototype-based inheritance system.
•Support for packages, namespaces, and regular expressions.
•Compiles to an entirely new type of bytecode, incompatible with ActionScript 1.0 and
2.0 bytecode.
•Revised Flash Player API, organized into packages.
•Unified event handling system based on the DOM event handling standard.
•Integration of ECMAScript with XML (E4X) for purposes of XML processing.
•Direct access to the Flash runtime display list for complete control of what gets
displayed at runtime.
•Limited support for dynamic 3D objects. (X, Y, Z rotation, and texture mapping).
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