Got code? How about a code decompiler?

One way to learn Actionscript 3 is to acquire fla. files, look at the AS3 coding and figure out the logic and organization "behind the curtain."

You can google "free flash code" or some other search thread and you'll find a number of sites that will give you code. (Flashsourcecode and Interactivemedia are just a couple of such sites.) On Karl's resource page there are a number of tutorial-type sites that also will give you code.

Getting code that way is ok but very limiting.

Another way to acquire code is to buy an application that will take swf. files and decompile them back into fla. files. These are called decompiler applications and they are controversial because code is considered to be an intellectual product by some (many/most?) and it is thought code shouldn't be "stolen" even if the purpose for taking the code is to study it and not redistribute it commercially.

I will leave it to you to ponder the ethical issues that using a decompiler raises. I understand the intellectual property issue but at the same time I simply want to learn how gosh-wow effects are achieved.

I did however do some research on decompilers. One of the most popular decompilers is the SWF Decompiler V5.3 put out by Sothink. It costs $79.99 and it's advertised as being able to convert SWFs to FLAs and extract everything from the files including images and code.

Another decompiler, Flash Decompiler, is put out by Trillix. It costs about the same --$79.95.

I downloaded free demo versions of both programs (the demos were limited in scope -- neither allowed for code extraction). The Trillix product was easier to use -- you just drop and click files. The Sothink decompiler was somewhat confusing -- I didn't actually test it because it wasn't as intuitive and frankly, I couldn't figure it out without a tutorial.

At left is a screen shot of the Trillix decompiler as it was decompiling a fla. file of the puzzle exercise we did earlier in class.