Why ActionScript

Today, web database application developers have more implementation choices than ever before.

We can choose a server-heavy architecture where a PHP, ASP, or ASP.NET application performs the majority of the logic.  In this case, the server application frequently refreshes the client browser with the entire HTML page every time there is client-server interaction.  This way, we don't rely on the client to do too much work.

A newer approach that is growing in popularity: AJAX.  The key advantage is that the client performs the data transformation logic by communicating with the server without reloading the page.  This asynchronous client-server interaction translates to a smoother user experience resulting from background data updates (as opposed to making the user wait for the entire page to reload between updates).

ActionScript includes the same asynchronous XML advantages as AJAX, plus it carries these additional strengths:

Browser Compatibility.
99% of all Internet users support Flash ActionScript applications.  If you only have the time and resources to choose one platform, Flash is usually the best choice because it is the most ubiquitous and versatile.  Now with the introduction of Adobe AIR, Flash and Flex ActionScript applications can be deployed as desktop applications.

Graphics, Animation, and "The Cool Factor" - (Recommended Sample: 3D Rendering)
The coolest thing about ActionScript is it's integration with Flash, the graphics and animation tool.  Although ActionScript 2.0 is one of the latest and greatest things to come from the Web 2.0 generation, Flash as a standalone graphics and animation engine is already a killer graphics enabler by itself.

ActionScript is effectively attached to the API of the Flash graphics and animation engine.  This is what stretches its coolness beyond "Yes, it's an object-oriented language".  In other words, ActionScript 2.0+ compares very closely to Java, C++, C#, and all the other power-languages out there.. but only ActionScript has the ability to directly latch on to the built-in graphics capabilities of Flash.

Media - (Recommended Sample: Podcast Squares)
ActionScript driving the power of podcasting media, Streaming video, and high-quality sound provides for new opportunities that we are only just beginning to see on websites of all sizes.