Random time events

i found him and presented the issue to him in the thread "how to get fps of a movieclip".

well, i'm not so sure. it's likely that i'm partially correct (or partially incorrect). jeckyll has more expertise in this area. i just haven't seen any posts from him lately.

I think we can safely assume you're correct.

it's documented that named functions are compiled first. the rest of my conclusions (ie, when a named function is encountered later during code execution it is ignored) are inferences and may be incorrect.

i was just typing an answer and was explaining that i found nothing to explain the issue, when i realized that i had found the explaination.

named functions are compiled before the other actionscript in a frame. if a named function is within a block of code (like an if-statement or another function) it is not compiled before the other actionscript and when it is encountered during execution of the conditional block of code, flash probably figures it has already been compiled and fails to compile it.

that's correct, you cannot define a function inside an if-statment. if drop() were ever defined it would always be defined unless and until it is redefined or set to null.

i had assummed it would be defined in the first pass through that if-statement and no longer would the code defining drop() need to be encountered.

Paging Jeckyl...

My best guess is:
The initial setInterval receives a random time to wait to call drop(). During that time codeExecuted gets set to true so that when execution of the code starts over... drop() doesn't get defined anymore.

well, you're right luigi. that doesn't work.

but why doesn't it? why is drop() never defined?

even though the code defining drop() is encountered by flash, at no time is drop() defined.

the function doesn't have to be outside the if. it's better if it's left inside because there's no need to repeatedly define a function and it's a waste of resources to repeatedly execute the code to define a function.

yes, the game runs from one frame...just an actionscript loop.