The Future of ActionScript

There's a great post over at FlashDen today about the problems with ActionScript and its future. As a Flash instructor, the hardest thing about teaching Flash is ActionScript. ActionScript 3 made that only the more difficult.

The hurdles I've had to face transitioning from AS2 to AS3 were pretty high and it took a while to get acclimated. For a student who's had little to no exposure to Flash and scripting languages of any kind, it's almost impossible for them to even grasp what's going on.

Sure AS3 is awesome and the benefits of a stricter language offer performance improvements and such, but how does that translate to the average user? What's the ideal learning path for someone just learning Flash? How do I become a Flash Developer and move to the next level? It's not something that comes quickly or easily. The language is more involved and there are still syntax issues.

The articles contributors sum it up pretty good. It's amazing to me how many people are still developing in AS2 and prefer to. It's indicative a shift in the direction of the language towards an extreme that may just be too difficult for some to wrap their brains around.