Differences between ActionScript and JavaScript

ActionScript is similar to the core JavaScript programming language. You don't need to know JavaScript to use and learn ActionScript; however, if you know JavaScript, ActionScript will seem familiar.

This manual does not attempt to teach general programming. There are many resources that provide more information about general programming concepts and the JavaScript language.

The ECMAScript (ECMA-262) edition 3 language specification is derived from JavaScript and serves as the international standard for the JavaScript language. ActionScript is based on this specification. For more information, see www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-262.htm.
The Java Technology site has tutorials on object-oriented programming (http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/java/index.html) that are targeted for the Java language but are useful for understanding concepts that you can apply to ActionScript.

Some of the differences between ActionScript and JavaScript are described in the following list:

ActionScript does not support browser-specific objects such as Document, Window, and Anchor.
ActionScript does not completely support all the JavaScript built-in objects.
ActionScript does not support some JavaScript syntax constructs, such as statement labels.
In ActionScript, the eval() function can perform only variable references.
ActionScript 2.0 supports several features that are not in the ECMA-262 specification, such as classes and strong typing. Many of these features are modeled after the ECMAScript (ECMA-262) edition 3 language specification (see www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-262.htm).
ActionScript does not support regular expressions using the RegExp object. However, Adobe Central does support the RegExp object. For more information on Adobe Central, see www.adobe.com/products/central.

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