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10. Importing external class files

In order to better organize classes and to avoid class name conflicts, the concept of packages was introduced in many languages. ActionScript 2.0 introduces the import keyword that implements this functionality.

What are naming conflicts? Imagine two different developers, each offering a code library, and in each library there is a class called Utilities. If both libraries are used together, either one class file will end up overwriting the other in the same folder, or Flash will get confused as to which Utilities class it should use.

Class paths come to the rescue! By incorporating a path to a class, just like files on a hard drive, classes with the same name can co-exist. To reach a particular class, use the full class path with the import statement like this:

import mx.events.EventDispatcher;

After a class has been imported, referring to the class can be done by only including the class name, such as EventDispatcher:

class MyBroadcaster {
   public function MyBroadcaster() {
       EventDispatcher.initialize(this);
   }
}

class MyBroadcaster {
   public function MyBroadcaster() {
      mx.events.EventDispatcher.initialize(this);
   }
}

import com.quantumwave.alliance.rebel.Commander;

import com.quantumwave.*;

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