Is it just me, or is this website lacking in Flash developers?
Let's look at the Source Code Stats: ActionScript 1 & 2: 9 ActionScript 3: 1
Seriously. Come on. Freakin' Python has 14. Somebody. Learn to speak my language. In all seriousness, if anyone's interested in learning, I have a host of tutorials that I could link you to, as well as a decent chunk of open source work that you could use to learn off of. Just leave me a comment on my profile [:
My business partner knows actionscript quite well... but he hates it. It's just not a very nice language so he tends to only use it when forced to (because of a client).
I learnt it for about 3 hours and didn't like it so stopped.
From the languages i know i think PHP is the one that balances simplicity with elegence for example: Arrays can do so much from lists, to hashes (associative arrays), to multi dimentional arrays. Take perl for example and to do those 3 things mentioned you need to use @array_datatype, (list), %hash_datatype, and then use references for multidimentional arrays! Ewwwwwww... PHP does it all automatically in a single type, and no need to use any extra characters like /, {}. @, %, etc like Perl does... instead just $ and [] deals with all the data structures you want to create out of arrays.
I even prefer JavaScript to AS! Mind you, i think AS is better nicer than Perl though
I haven't learned all that many languages well, but I've dabbled in plenty of them.
When you think about it, almost every language has an area that its strongest in, which is probably the determening factor in why you might favor one or the other. I personally like ActionScript because its well documented, easy to pick up, integrates well with a large number of languages, and allows for the physical construction of some of its display items (Making it easy to have things that look really nice).
However, I think AS alone would be rather bland without PHP or XML. As both allow what it can to do to expand exponentially. PHP is a brilliant language filled with a large amount of predefined functions, not requiring a compiler (at least that I know of (outside of the browser)). The only thing that bothers me about it is that it's nearly impossible to make something that's unhackable, but I guess that's a problem with every language? :l
I'm rambling again, haha.
ActionScript, PHP, XML, CSS, Ajax, and good old HTML. In that order.
The only thing that bothers me about it is that it's nearly impossible to make something that's unhackable, but I guess that's a problem with every language?
Thats simply down to experience. Once you cover the main such as XSS, null byte attacks (not just in php, but any language that uses a null byte to indicate the end of a string), special character escaping, file traversal attacks, etc.... then your able to block 99% of attacks. In fact, something as simple as handling form data is easy:
1. Make sure the data is sent using isset()
2. Make sure the data validates i.e. if you ask for an age, make sure it's between say 10 and 100 and it's of an integer type.
3. If your going to display the data, use htmlentities (i always use htmlentities BEFORE saving it)... if it's going to say a mysql database use mysql_raw_escape_string (functions something like that... my framework automatically applies all those functions so i never have to write that anymore).
4. Depending on the checks you use may depend on if you need to strip null bytes: http://www.coderprofile.com/coder/VBAssassin/articles/view?id=58
Once you understand "how" they are security threats, your pretty comfortable in protecting scripts against them there are some great books out there on PHP security... though you only need one since they all say the same stuff and many of the attacks apply to any server side language such as the null byte poison will apply to C etc... but not perl as it keeps track of the length of each string instead.
ActionScript, PHP, XML, CSS, Ajax, and good old HTML. In that order.
XML isn't technically a language since it's not turing complete. Neither is CSS or HTML... and Ajax is a technology not a language. Mind you... i still personally class XML, CSS and HTML as languages... i.e. markup languages
Interesting. I wasn't neccessarily concerned with people attempting to attack, rather my ability to protect. Such as making sure passwords cannot be easily captured or a secure zone rendred well, unsecure.
As for the languages, I was going more along the lines of the ones that can be rendered in the browser, as my experience is next to none when it comes to anything else. Hopefully I can change that soon [:
When, where, and why did you start coding and what languages did you start with?
When: I was about 15 when i started coding in VB6, after a year switched to PHP and stuck with web dev, i'm 21 now.
Where: My bedroom
Why: Because i love a challenge and get bored to quick if somethings no longer a challenge. Programming is perfect for that.
As for the languages, I was going more along the lines of the ones that can be rendered in the browser, as my experience is next to none when it comes to anything else. Hopefully I can change that soon [:
PHP can't be rendered in a browser, it's server side and produces HTML XML is often not rendered in a browser either PHP can also be run via a CLI (command line interface - shell scripts) and you can create GUI's using GTK / WinBinder with PHP
I did 6th form... but studied biology, business studies, and ICT (designing invoices and boring shit... very little programming).
I taught myself everything i know about programming. I applied for Computer Science (1 year) + Internet Development (2 years)... got accepted... but declined at the last minute when the opportunity to go in to business came up. Just been learning on the job ever since. My role at my web development company is to basically develop websites from start to finish. However, i do tend to dabble in all areas such as marketing, etc.
So never really had the time or requirement to go to college/university.
There are 2 sources in assembly, and 9 sources in C# (which is a well known, quite common language). I'm saying that the problem is not only with the AS sources, we need more different coders in overall. Right now there's just a few regulars. This site really needs to get promoted, so do it!
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