788 Writing Scripts for Earlier Versions of Flash Player
Using Flash 8 to create content for
Flash Player 4
To use Flash 8 to create content for Flash Player 4, specify Flash Player 4 on the Flash tab of
the Publish Settings dialog box (File > Publish Settings).
Flash Player 4 ActionScript has only one basic primitive data type, which is used for numeric
and string manipulation. When you write an application for Flash Player 4, you must use the
deprecated string operators located in the Deprecated > Operators category in the
ActionScript toolbox.
You can use the following Flash 8 features when you publish for Flash Player 4:
■ The array and object access operator ([])
■ The dot operator (.)
■ Logical operators, assignment operators, and pre- and post-increment/
decrement operators
■ The modulo operator (%), and all methods and properties of the Math class
The following language elements are not supported natively by Flash Player 4. Flash 8 exports
them as series approximations, which creates results that are less numerically accurate. In
addition, because of the inclusion of series approximations in the SWF file, these language
elements need more space in Flash Player 4 SWF files than they do in Flash Player 5 or later
SWF files.
■ The for, while, do..while, break, and continue actions
■ The print() and printAsBitmap() actions
■ The switch action
For additional information, see “About targeting earlier versions of Flash Player” on page 787.
Using Flash 8 to open Flash 4 files
Flash 4 ActionScript had only one true data type: string. It used different types of operators in
expressions to indicate whether the value should be treated as a string or as a number. In
subsequent releases of Flash, you can use one set of operators on all data types.
When you use Flash 5 or later to open a file that was created in Flash 4, Flash automatically
converts ActionScript expressions to make them compatible with the new syntax. Flash makes
the following data type and operator conversions:
To Next Page
Loading...