I’m finding all sorts of little gems in the Flex 2.0 help files. Flex 2.0 supports embedding SVG files just like other images like JPEG or PNG using the [Embed] meta tag:

Flex supports a subset of the SVG 1.1 specification to let you import static, two-dimensional scalable vector graphics. This includes support for basic SVG document structure, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) styling, transformations, paths, basic shapes, and colors, and a subset of text, painting, gradients, and fonts. Flex does not support SVG animation, scripting, or interactivity with the imported SVG image.

With that in mind, it’s now possible to visually build vector art assets for Flash using open source programs. That’s one of the big things the OSFlash movement has been missing. If you’re looking for a nice SVG program, I’d recommend Inkscape. Does anyone know of other good choices?

While looking through the Flex 2.0 help files, I discovered a great little section on inheritance. Near the bottom, I found a section that covers overriding getters and setters. It included the following code:

package
{
    import flash.display.MovieClip;
    public class OverrideExample extends MovieClip
    {
        public function OverrideExample()
        {
            trace(currentLabel)
        }

        override public function get currentLabel():String
        {
            var str:String = "Override: ";
            str += super.currentLabel;
            return str;
        }
    }
}

You’ll notice that the currentLabel getter calls super.currentLabel. That never worked in AS2. It makes me happy.

I hadn’t faced a situation like this one in the previous builds of Flex 2.0, but I’m working with some new code. For some reason, I’m getting errors when I use the same variable name but different types for variables that are in different scopes. It’s a pain because its the “i” variable in a for loop. This issue seems to happen only within a single function.

private function scopingIssue():void
{
	if(this.width == 100)
	{
		for(var i:Number = 0; i < 1000; i += 10.2)
			this.doSomething(i);
	}
	else
	{
		//The variable "i" here should not be related to the other one at all
		for(var i:uint = 0; i < 10; i++)
			this.doSomethingElse();
	}
}

Both those for loops are in different scopes, so they should work as different types, but I get the error, "A conflict exists with definition i in namespace internal". This is definitely a bug. Can someone remind me where to find the bug submission form?

I’m working to migrate some code to ActionScript 3, and I’ve come across an annoying problem with inheritance. I’d like some ideas for how to work around it. It’s not a big deal, but I’d prefer not to add a lot of weird casting everywhere.

Here’s a basic example. FruitTree is my base class. It contains a variable called myFruit of type Fruit. I extend FruitTree to make AppleTree. In AppleTree, myFruit becomes an Apple, which is a subclass of Fruit. In AS3, I can’t seem to redeclare myFruit as an Apple inside AppleTree. Just rewriting the declaration in AppleTree (with Apple instead of Fruit) gives me an error, “A conflict exists with inherited definition FruitTree.myFruit in namepace public”. It seems to me that since Apple is a Fruit, things should stay compatible with the super class. I’d prefer to use this method because allows me to use myFruit as an Apple without casting it every time I need to use it.

Here’s an example of what worked fine using AS2:

class FruitTree
{
	public var myFruit:Fruit;

	public function doSomething():Void
	{
		this.myFruit.getEaten();
	}
}

class AppleTree extends FruitTree
{
	//An Apple is still a Fruit, but I want to access some special functions
	//In AS2, this works:
	public var myFruit:Apple;

	public function doSomething():Void
	{
		this.myFruit.removeStem(); //extra functionality
		this.myFruit.getEaten();
	}
}

In AS3, here’s the only way I’ve found to make it work, but requires a lot of extra code because I have to cast myFruit as Apple all the time.

public class FruitTree
{
	public var myFruit:Fruit;

	public function doSomething():void
	{
		this.myFruit.getEaten();
	}
}

public class AppleTree extends FruitTree
{
	//We can't redeclare the variable myFruit as an Apple because we get an error.

	public function doSomething():void
	{
		//Since we can't redeclare it, we have to cast it here
		//I'd rather not have to do this sort of casting a million times
		var myFruitAsApple:Apple = this.myFruit as Apple;
		myFruitAsApple.removeStem();
		myFruitAsApple.getEaten();
	}
}

I also tried building a getter and setter for the property as a work around, but changing the type in the overriding function gives an “Incompatible override” error. It’s probably for the same reason as the code above. Can anyone give me any insights into a way to do what I want? Could this be classified as a bug?