Is the Future Written in E4X?

If you haven't heard of E4X yet, you soon will. E4X is is a programming language extension that adds XML support to ECMAScript. E4X stands for ECMAScript for XML. ECMAScript is best known by the name JavaScript.

E4X is an official JavaScript standard that adds direct support for XML. The objective of the E4X extension is to provide an alternative to the DOM interfaces by using a simpler syntax for accessing XML documents. If you have ever worked with DOM, you don't need me to tell you how difficult it can be to access XML data using it. All I need to tell you is that E4X is the answer to your prayers.

But wait a minute. What does this have to do with Flash you say. Well, not only is E4X the answer to every JavaScript developers prayers, it also saves the day for Flash developers too.

Today's world is visual. Some say it is a sad commentary on our world that people would rather view animation than read a book. My objective, however, is not to philosophize on the nature and shortcomings of our society, but rather to provide information on a tool that you will want to learn about and work with to make your point, and hopefully your fortune, in the world we find ourselves in today. And with E4X visual communication just got easier.

XML, a simple and flexible text-based format for describing data, is the language standard recommended by the W3C. It is also part of the scripting language know as ActionScript3 (AS3) which is at the heart of Adobe Flash. Adobe has adopted and adapted E4X for use in AS3, making AS3 light years better than the previous version AS2.

Using the XML Object, Flash has created built-in support for managing XML data. This allows you to easily alter and update fields from XML files as well as write to files from dynamic fields.

If you have used Flash in the past and found working with AS2 or AS1 difficult, you must give AS3 a try. It has made working with XML data simple.