If you’ve programmed in ActionScript 3.0, you’re undoubtedly familiar with the following code:

someObject.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, completeHandler);

You may or may not know that addEventListener() takes five parameters, the last three of which are optional.

addEventListener(type:String, listener:Function, useCapture:Boolean=false, priority:int=0, useWeakReference:Boolean=false)

Have you ever wondered what the last three parameters do? In this article I take a closer look at events and event handling in ActionScript 3.0. Hopefully, by more fully understanding these features, you’ll be better able to leverage the language’s robust event architecture in your projects.