MACROMEDIA FLASH 8-LEARNING ACTIONSCRIPT 2.0 IN FLASH Manual page 805

Data types
describe the kind of information a variable or ActionScript element can contain.
The built-in ActionScript data types are String, Number, Boolean, Object, MovieClip,
Function, null, and undefined. For more information, see
Device fonts are special fonts in Flash that are not embedded in a Flash SWF file. Instead,
Flash Player uses whatever font on the local computer most closely resembles the device font.
Because font outlines are not embedded, SWF file size is smaller than when embedded font
outlines are used. However, because device fonts are not embedded, the text that you create
with them looks different than expected on computer systems that do not have a font installed
that corresponds to the device font. Flash includes three device fonts: _sans (similar to
Helvetica and Arial), _serif (similar to Times Roman), and _typewriter (similar to Courier).
Dot syntax refers to when you use a dot (.) operator (dot syntax) to access properties or
methods that belong to an object or instance on the Stage using ActionScript. You also use the
dot operator to identify the target path to an instance (such as a movie clip), variable,
function, or object. A dot syntax expression begins with the name of the object or movie clip,
followed by a dot, and it ends with the element you want to specify.
Events
occur while a SWF file is playing. For example, different events are generated when a
movie clip loads, the playhead enters a frame, the user clicks a button or movie clip, or the
user types on the keyboard.
Event handlers
are special events that manage when the mouse is clicked, or when data
finishes loading. There are two kinds of ActionScript event handlers: event handler methods
and event listeners. (There are also two event handlers, on handler and onClipEvent
handler, that you can assign directly to buttons and movie clips.) In the Actions toolbox,
each ActionScript object that has event handler methods or event listeners has a subcategory
called Events or Listeners. Some commands can be used both as event handlers and as event
listeners and are included in both subcategories. For more information on event management,
see "Handling Events" on page
Expressions are any legal combination of ActionScript symbols that represent a value. An
expression consists of operators and operands. For example, in the expression
are operands and is an operator.
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Flash Player container
browser or the desktop application. You can add ActionScript and JavaScript to facilitate
communication between the Flash Player container and a SWF file.
FlashType
refers to the advanced font rendering technology in Flash 8. For example, Alias
Text for Readability uses the FlashType rendering technology, and Alias Text for Animation
does not. For information, see
Frame scripts
are blocks of code that you add to a frame on a timeline.
329.
refers to the system that holds the Flash application, such as a
"About font rendering and anti-alias text" on page
"About data types" on page
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, and
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