I was reminded today of Flash components. For those that don’t know about them, they’re like classes in OOP. Well, seem to be anyway. And for those not familiar with that, it is a black box of reusable code that takes pieces of information and becomes what you want. The book likens them to plug-ins or macros though that’s not close enough either.

For example, let’s say I have to make a hundred quizzes a month in Flash. Now, that’s silly to copy and paste, eh? What if something changes? Or you learn how to write it better?

If I wanted to utilize this powerful component foo, then I’d make a generic quiz that takes various attributes and becomes a specific quiz for that project.

I bought a book a year ago (I impulsed at brick&mortarBarnes & Noble) called The Hidden Power of Flash Components and I’ve been meaning to make some of the examples to show someone how easy it is to make a hundred quizzes. That and if it’s in a black box type thing, then anyone with a little Flash experience can make the quiz instead of just the experts.

If they’re really encapsulated, then there could be a library of these components for everyone to use. Like if I made a quiz component, then the human resources department could use it for their training.

Must put this on my to-do list for the labolio