Macromedia flash media server 2-developing media applications User Manual

104

Application Development Tips and Tricks

Initializing applications

Initialization of an application is used to set the starting state. It should be the first function 
call in the application. This function should be the only call for initialization made in your 
program; all other calls should be event driven.

// frame 1
this.init();
function init()
{

if (this.inited != undefined)

return;

this.inited = true;
// Initialization code here

}

Using var for local variables

All local variables should use the keyword 

var

. This prevents variables from being accessed 

globally and, more importantly, prevents variables from being inadvertently overwritten. 
Using 

var

 also lets you use strict typing for an object for type checking at compile time. For 

more information on strict typing, search for “strict data typing” in Flash Help.

For example, the following code does not use the keyword 

var

 to declare the variable and 

inadvertently overwrites another variable.

counter = 7;
function loopTest(){

trace(counter);
for(counter = 0; counter < 5; counter++){

trace(counter);

}

}
trace(counter);
loopTest();
trace(counter);

This code outputs the following:

7
7
0
1
2
3
4
5