Naming conventions in actionscript (part 3)

Naming interfaces

Starting interface names with an uppercase "I" helps you distinguish an interface from a class. The following interface name, IEmployeeRecords, uses an initial uppercase letter and concatenated words with mixed case, as follows:

interface IEmployeeRecords{}

The following conventions also apply:

• Interface names have an uppercase first letter. This is the same as class names.
  
• Interface names are usually adjectives. Printable is a good example.
  
  

Naming custom components

Component names have an uppercase first letter, and any concatenated words are written in mixed case.

For example, the following default user-interface component set uses concatenated words and mixed case:

• CheckBox
  
• ComboBox
  
• DataGrid
  
• DateChooser
  
• DateField
  
• MenuBar
  
• NumericStepper
  
• ProgressBar
  
• RadioButton
  
• ScrollPane
  
• TextArea
  
• TextInput
  

Components that do not use concatenated words begin with an uppercase letter.

If you develop custom components, use a naming convention to prevent naming incompatibilities with Adobe components. The names of your components must be different from those of the default set that is included with Flash. If you adopt your own consistent naming convention, it helps you prevent naming conflicts.

Remember that the naming conventions in this section are guidelines. It is most important to use a naming scheme that works well for you and to use it consistently.

Avoiding reserved words or language constructs

When naming instances and variables, avoid using reserved words, which can cause errors in your code. Reserved words include keywords in the ActionScript language.

Also, do not use any word in the ActionScript 2.0 languages (called a language construct) as an instance or variable name. ActionScript constructs include class names, component class names, method and property names, and interface names.

Never use different cases to avoid conflicting with reserved words. For example, naming an instance of the textfield TextField class (which doesn't conflict with TextField because Flash is case-sensitive) is a poor coding practice. The following table lists reserved keywords in ActionScript 2.0 that cause errors in your scripts when used as variable names:

add	and	break	case
catch	class	continue	default
delete	do	dynamic	else
eq	extends	false	finally
for	function	ge	get
gt	if	ifFrameLoaded	implements
import	in	instanceof	interface
intrinsic	le	it	ne
new	not	null	on
onClipEvent	or	private	public
return	set	static	super
switch	tellTarget	this	throw
try	typeof	var	void
while	with

The following words are reserved for future use in Flash, from the ECMAScript (ECMA-262) edition 4 draft language specification. Avoid using these words because they might be used in future releases of Flash.

as	abstract	Boolean	bytes
char	const	debugger	double
enum	export	final	float
goto	is	long	namespace
native	package	protected	short
synchronized	throws	transient	use
volatile