ActionScript vs C#?

Question

What (if any) are the major differences in the work environment, type of projects, type of thinking, pay, and general day to day working differences based on your experience?

RE: Apples vs Oranges (this is exactly why I asked)

Answer 1

Actionscript = making slick looking flash websites for clients, working at a website design firm.

C# = making 'enterprisey' intranet applications and the occasional public website.

From what i've seen, actionscript pays a bit less and the work environments would be more funky.

Answer 2

I'm going to answer this as you genuinely seem to want to know the difference, but you should be more specific in your questioning.

As a language, C# is significantly more mature than ActionScript and has very little legacy. ActionScript, on the other hand, has some legacy from previous ActionScript versions (that were not completely object oriented). I won't go into the differences in the languages themselves unless you ask for it (it's a big topic)

As far as platforms go, ActionScript can be used for:

• Flash - web banners, animations, games (cross platform)
• Flex - cross platform line of busisness applications
• AIR - desktop applications built using flex

C# can be used for:

• Windows Forms applications
• Rich Windows applications (WPF)
• Microsoft Surface applications
• Silverlight applications (cross platform - generally include the options I mentioned for Flex/AS), hosted in the browser or on the desktop
• ASP.NET WebForms applications
• ASP.NET MVC applications
• XNA (games on Windows/Xbox 360/Zune)
• Windows Mobile applications (.NET Compact Framework)
• Applications on small machinery like watches (.NET Micro Framework)
• Windows Phone 7 applications (in either Silverlight or XNA)

As far as work environment, it entirely depends on the company. In fact, it's more related to the industry (new media vs banking, etc) than the technology.

Pay is affected by skill and industry. Some industries need Flash/Flex guys more and will pay for them, some need .NET guys, some need neither.

Finally I think 'type of thinking', again, largely comes down to the type of application. Games have a different way of thinking than line of business applications.

If this is a career based choice, figure out what you want to make and what industry, not how you want to make it.

Answer 3

I think the best response is I want both a hammer and a wrench. Some jobs are better solved with a wrench, some with a hammer, and sometimes you might need both.

Action script is used with Flash content. Where C# can be used for various types of applications. I think C# development is more versatile than actionscript. Flash content is very Flashy (no pun intended), but with C# you can write, as stated earlier, many various types of applications from the web to a mobile device. C# will give you many tools to work with the .NET Framework. These two environments are night and day difference. Right now I would consider C# one of the Big 3 languages in demand.