[jpwrunyan]

Hi,
I have a question about writing faster code but...

let me start by saying that this is not about "best practice" or writing legible or nice looking code. What I want to do is get my code to process as quickly as possible on my machine.

now... I have heard that it is better to reference functions than to write them explicitely:

ex)

(slower):

Actionscript:

for (var mc in _array) {
	_array[mc]._x = Math.sin(Math.PI*i);
}

(faster):

Actionscript:

var pi:Number = Math.PI;
var sinFunc = Math.sin;
for (var mc in _array) {
	_array[mc]._x = sinFunc(pi*i);
}

now I want to add class vs. instance to the discussion. I use the following frequently:

Actionscript:

Math.PI;
Math.sin;
180/Math.PI ;
// (...and more)

currently I have a global object called: MyObject from which all other movie clip classes extend. MyObject looks like this:

Actionscript:

class MyObject extends MovieClip {
	static var PI = Math.PI;
	static var SIN_FUNC = Math.sin;
}

and from that I have other classes inhereting as:

Actionscript:

class SubObject extends MyObject {
	
	var enterFrameCount:Number = 0;

	function Move() {
		_x = SIN_FUNC(enterFrameCount*PI);
		enterFrameCount++;
	}
}

is this the fastest way to do it? does static vs non-static make a difference? What about using variables that are inherited vs declared in the child class? would it be faster in the above to rewrite as:

Actionscript:

class SubObject {
	//does not extend
	
	var enterFrameCount:Number = 0;
	var PI = Math.PI;
	var SIN_FUNC = Math.sin;

	function Move() {
		_x = SIN_FUNC(enterFrameCount*PI);
	}
}

any concrete suggestions related to this or other ways to increase code performance would be great! I don't care about good OOP practice at this point, I will use my own discretion when deciding between "best practice" and "fastest code". The only thing I am *not* willing to do is use the tellTarget() command in place of "." sytax. Links to articles are also welcome, but I am specifically concerned about some of the AS2.0 specific issues (such as instance vs. class variables, inherited variable references, etc)

ps: I already know about making variable and function names as short as possible to increase speed--even though I didn't do that in the above.