About ActionScript

ActionScript is the scripting/programming language supported by Adobe's Flash Player. ActionScript is based on ECMAScript, the same standard that JavaScript and several other prominent scripting languages derive from.

Flex / ActionScript 3

Adobe has recently taken steps to release ActionScript from it's proprietary status in Flash. Freely available options for ActionScript programming:

• Free Compiler: Flex 2 SDK
• Open Source Runtime/VM: Mozilla Tamarin
• Adobe anounces that they will be releasing the Flex AS3/MXML compiler as open source under the MPL: Open Source Flex

Relation to PSYC

There have been some efforts to implement PSYC in Flash / ActionScript.

• The first would probably be symlynX Flash Client for PSYC. It is a fairly old flash application, but it still works with recent versions of Flash Player.
• More recently, User:Monkey did a partial port of the PsycZilla engine. The result was a successful translation of the core protocol code from JavaScript to ActionScript 2. The code is currently available from the PsycZilla CVS Repository. This code would be a great starting point for creating a new PSYC client implementation.
• As of March 2007, User:Monkey has started planning for a new implementation of PsycZilla based on ActionScript 3. By using the free Flex2 SDK it is now possible to take advantage of advances in the Flash Player and ActionScript Virtual Machine. The new version of ActionScript has a very rich API for Network Socket Programming and User Interface Development. The first effort for this project will be to update the previous ActionScript 2.0 port of PsycZilla so that it will compile under ActionScript 3. Updates on the status of this work will be added to PsycZilla:Status as soon as there is significant progress to report.
• There was a version of CsYc in Flex.
• Have a look at psyctive.
• http://billyidle.com is a commercial web-based VoIP/PSYC client, which tunnels PSYC packets in RTMP.