Better Management of Code -
The Final Product Runs Faster Than AS2.

The better it gets the more complex it is to implement it. AS2 is by no means better than AS3 and I can surely say that AS3 is better than AS2.

It takes less code in AS2 but you get less performance too. So keep that in mind.

Now my problem is that the above needs to be inserted into the beginning of another project as the second project will be accessible from any one of the 6 buttons now onstage. Now the above has its own Main.as and obviously the second project also has its own Main.as . Now how the HECK do I combine the two. Even the code in this tutorial throws up all kinds of errors.

Sorry if I sound frustrated. I dont want to learn this AS3 but I guess I will have to or get left behind.

Paul

Why not:
package
{
import flash.events.KeyboardEvent;
public class keys
{
public const LEFT_ARROW:int = 37;
public const RIGHT_ARROW:int = 39;
public const UP_ARROW:int = 38;
public const DOWN_ARROW:int = 40;
public const SPACE_BAR:int = 32;

public var keysTracked:Array;

public function keys(movieclip)
{
keysTracked = new Array();

movieclip.stage.addEventListener(KeyboardEvent.KEY_DOWN, keyDownHandler);
movieclip.stage.addEventListener(KeyboardEvent.KEY_UP, keyUpHandler);
}

public function trackKey(keyCode:int):void
{
keysTracked[keyCode] = false;
}

public function unTrackKey(keyCode:int):void
{
keysTracked[keyCode] = undefined;
}

public function isKeyDown(keyCode:int)
{
return keysTracked[keyCode];
}

function keyDownHandler(event:KeyboardEvent)
{
if(keysTracked[event.keyCode] != undefined)
{
keysTracked[event.keyCode] = true;
}
}

function keyUpHandler(event:KeyboardEvent)
{
if(keysTracked[event.keyCode] != undefined)
{
keysTracked[event.keyCode] = false;
}
}

}
}

To add a key, add a constant for it. Or you can even call this with an integer, instead of the constants if you really want.

myInput = new keys(keySprite);
myInput.trackKey(myInput.UP_ARROW);
myInput.trackKey(myInput.DOWN_ARROW);
myInput.trackKey(myInput.LEFT_ARROW);
myInput.trackKey(myInput.RIGHT_ARROW);
myInput.trackKey(myInput.SPACE_BAR);

Test with:
myInput.isKeyDown(myInput.UP_ARROW);

To use your expression (stage.addEventListener…) keys class should Extend any DisplayObject class (Sprite for example).

Author made an universal class keys that can be used anywhere in platform games, so he did not use here any excess things.

On that part of the code:

public function keys(movieclip)
{
movieclip.stage.addEventListener(KeyboardEvent.KEY_DOWN, key_down); movieclip.stage.addEventListener(KeyboardEvent.KEY_UP, key_up);
}

why are you using a movieclip to access the stage?
couldn’t you do something like

stage.addEventListener(KeyboardEvent.KEY_UP, key_up)

ommiting the movieclip object?

Thank you!

But I did not understand one thing. Why did you use the functions like keys.is_up, keys.is_down and so on?

I think that it is easier to use just properties of the keys class like keys.press_up, keys.press_down etc… (of course, you should before change the access modifiers from private to public for these properties)

Maybe I’m wrong…

Basically you forgot to declare your my_input variable and my Output throws errors whenever you try to access it.

Add:
private var my_input:keys;
below the “public class all_in_one extends Sprite”

And then it works.