I've been trialing the flex 2 alpha with player 8.5 and have been most interested in the strict typing and the implications it has in compiler optimization and application performance. So I put together a little demo app to experiment with some math calculations. You can see some apps here and here . Please note that you will need flash player 8.5 to see the demo. Here is a screen snapshot:

This little guy was also showcased on the macromedia labs web site here.

I look forward to throwing some more examples up on my blog in the near future and maybe even getting a another spotlight on the labs site :)

Regular expressions are very handy when you need to validate user input. JavaScript provides the RegExp object but ActionScript doesn't have a built-in equivelant. So I went on the hunt to see what was out there and stumbled across this site:http://www.jurjans.lv/flash/RegExp.html which offers a home grown class that claims to bealmost 100% compatible with JavaScript 1.2 standard.

For a project I am developing in Macromedia Flex, I needed a website url validator. There are several standard validators (i.e. email, zip code, phone number, etc.) but no URL validator. So I decided to put Pavlis' RegExp class through it's paces.

I discovered that it works "as advertized"! I was able to quickly and easily create the URL validator using a regular expression. Here is the code snippet:

Note: The regular expression I chose to use here is just an example of a URL validation expression. I tend to use http://www.regexlib.com/ as a resource when looking for regular expressions. Also, note the double backslashes where you might expect a single. The ActionScript compiler tries to interpret the character following backslash before the argument is passed to the RegExp constructor. The double slash escapes the backslash.

To help my daughter memorize her multiplication tables, I put together this little app using the Flex 2.0 Public Alpha. Read the story behing Meteor Math and play the game. You may be surprised how rusty your multiplication skills have become. Note: Requires Flash Player 8.5 or higher. 



An alien race has discovered Earth! In long standing alien tradition, to determine if earthlingsare worthy of existence, a challenge is issued. Failing this challenge will result in the complete annihilation of earth and all it's inhabitants.
Earth is to be subjected to an onslaught of mathematical meteors! You alone have been chosen to pilot the Earth?s ship in defense of the alien attack. Your mathematical skills will be our only hope!

Good Luck!

I've been tinkerin with the new flex 2.0 Beta and what started as an effort to test ActionScript 3.0 math performance turned into something considerably more. Having always had a facsination with 3D math, I decided to write a simple 3D engine in flex 2 thinking it might be useful someday. While the usefulness remains to be seen, I had a lot of fun building this thing. Here are some of the highlighted features:

• XML model definition
• Ploygon surface styles (fill color, line color, alphas)
• Symmetry math to mirror a model (see the face demo)
• Vertex tweening so you can control a vertex’s movement
• Animation Sequences to combine multiple vertex tweening groups 
  • see the talking and/or kiss animations in the face demo

!!!DEMOS!!! Note: These flex demos require Flash Player 9 or higher..