ActionScript is a scripting language based on ECMA Script. Actionscript Originally developed by Macromedia, the language is now owned by Adobe which acquired Macromedia in 2005. ActionScript started as a scripting language for Macromedia's Flash authoring tool, now developed by Adobe Systems as Adobe Flash.
Early Flash developers could attach a simple command, called an "action", to a button or a frame. The set of actions was basic navigation controls, with commands such as "play", "stop", "getURL", and "gotoAndPlay". Later versions added functionality allowing for the creation of Web-based games and rich Internet applications with streaming media such as video and audio
ActionScript is used primarily for the development of websites and software using the Adobe Flash Player platform in the form of SWF files embedded into Web pages, but is also used in some database applications such as Alpha Five, and in basic robotics, as with the Make Controller Kit.
ActionScript was initially designed for controlling simple 2D vector animations made in Adobe Flash formerly Macromedia Flash. The first three versions of the Flash authoring tool provided limited interactivity features. With the release of Flash 4 in 1999, this simple set of actions became a small scripting language. New capabilities introduced for Flash 4 included variables, expressions, operators, if statements, and loops. Although referred to internally as "ActionScript", the Flash 4 user manual and marketing documents continued to use the term "actions" to describe this set of commands
