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Brevity

Submitted by blprnt on Tue, 2006-07-25 20:15.

Screenshot from a Brevity app 

Brevity is a scripting language for a scripting language. More specifically, it's a scripting language that sits on top of ActionScript 3.0 and gives quick and simple access to oft-used AS functions. From the site:

Back in the days of Flash 4 and 5, a lot of people were messing with ActionScript, experimenting with various stuff and creating some really cool and useless stuff. Flash 9 and AS3 now have the power and features we all dreamed about back then, but it has also become a lot more complex to code. One of the great things about early AS was that people with little or no programming background could come in and just start messing with stuff and create these really great effects. Now, AS3 has been targetted towards rich internet application development. It is heavily class oriented and has lost a lot of the simplicity it once had. That’s not a bad thing, but it can make it tougher for the beginner who just wants to play. Hopefully Brevity will form a bridge allowing newcomers to experiment with the power of AS3 without such a high learning curve.

Brevity is attempting to do for ActionScript what Processing does for Java. Indeed, Brevity is obviously borrowing from Processing already. One look at a sample script makes that much clear:

function setup()
{
    stageWidth = 400;
    stageHeight = 400;
    backgroundColor = 0xffffff;
    frameRate = 31;
}
function init()
{
    for(var i:int = 0; i < 25; i++)
    {
        var box:Box3D = new Box3D(20, 20, 20);
        box.randomPosition();
        box.randomVelocity(1, 2);
        box.randomSpin(-5, 5);
        box.move();
    }
}
 

Which begs the question... why not just use Processing? There is already an established Processing community, the application itself has gone through numerous rounds of testing and various upgrades, and Processing is increasingly in use in the art and music communities. So where does Brevity fit in? My immedeate reaction is that I'm not sure that it does fit in. However, it does provide one tantalizing advantage over Processing: it's end result will be a .SWF file, which cleanly avoids Java's inate clunkiness. It also makes projects created in Brevity a lot more accesable than those created in Processing.

Time will tell what happens with the Brevity project. Kudos go out to it's creators, Keith Peters and Todd Anderson, for taking on the initiative. It's something that I will certainly be keeping an eye on. 

 

Posted in ActionScript | Discussion | Flash | Link Submitted by blprnt on Tue, 2006-07-25 20:15.
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sweet!
seltar | Thu, 2006-07-27 13:07

I would like a forum for brevity! I just made my first nifty little thingie, and want to shaaare! .. might as well share here! :)

// global vars:
var circles:Array = new Array();

var size:int = 40;
var sens:int = 12;
var dist:int = 10;
var speed:Number = 0.09;

var offset:Number = 0;
var angle:Number = 0;
var angleInc:Number = 6.28/(size/2);

function setup()
{
    stageWidth = 500;
    stageHeight = 500;
    backgroundColor = 0xffffff;
    frameRate = 31;
}

function init()
{
    use2DSpace();
    for(var i:int = 0; i<size; i++){
        angle = angleInc*i;
        for(var j:int = 0; j<20; j++){
            var circle:Circle = new Circle((6/size)*i,rgb(255,i*(255/size),0));
            circles.push(circle);
        }
    }
    run();
}

function loop()
{
    offset+= speed;
    for(var i:int = 0; i < circles.length; i++){
        angle = angleInc*i;
        var j:int = (i/((size/2)+20));
        circles[i].x = sin(angle)*(dist*j)+sin(offset+(j/(6.28/2)))*sens;
        circles[i].y = cos(angle)*(dist*j)+cos(offset+(j/(6.28/2)))*sens;
    }
}

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Looks great! I will
blprnt | Thu, 2006-07-27 21:53

Looks great! I will definitely add a Brevity forum, though this one works, too. I am going to be revamping the forums entirely in August, so I will hook it up then. Thanks for the post! I am going to play around with Brevity a bit myself before FlashForward.

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