Library organization is subjective, of course. I happen to find Library folders useful, but I can understand wanting to see everything at a glance. I tend to name symbols from macro to micro. For example, a volume slider might have a knob and a track, and both are nested inside the slider symbol itself. I would probably call the slider “slider,” the knob “slider knob,” and the track “slider track” — that way they stack in proximity in the Library.

In your code sample, variable_name refers to a MovieClip instance. Since you don’t seem to be using ActionScript to instantiate this object — as have with the “instance_name” clip — I can only assume you put the “variable_name” clip on the Stage by hand and gave it an instance name.

No I didn’t. I just apparantly didn’t know how to set it up properly. And the same goes for the _level thingie. (as I also did wrong in the “Is _root Evil?” entry; that’s why I couldn’t get it to work)

But back to naming: Of course (me?…right) I know that symbol names do not matter, actionscriptwise- but just in practice, when I’m creating movieclips inside movieclips, inside buttons, inside movieclips… – I find it hard to stick to names that 1. stay together in the library (preferably without having to use folders) and describe the symbol in a strong fashion..

Symbol names are authoring conveniences only. Whatever a symbol is called in the Library is invisible to ActionScript. The only exception in AS1 and AS2 is Linkage ID, which can be added to a Library asset by right-clicking / Command-clicking. Linkage ID lets you “pull” an asset from the Library at runtime, using, say, MovieClip.attachMovie().

Variable names and instance names are functionally identical. If you give a symbol an instance name in the Property inspector, that instance name effectively becomes a variable for you automatically. Variables point to instances of objects. Instance names are simply variables.

In your code sample, variable_name refers to a MovieClip instance. Since you don’t seem to be using ActionScript to instantiate this object — as have with the “instance_name” clip — I can only assume you put the “variable_name” clip on the Stage by hand and gave it an instance name.

The reason you’re having trouble with the “instance_name” clip is that you’re trying to pass in a level as the second parameter of that createEmptyMovieClip call. That second parameter requires a depth (not the same as a level: level’s have depths).

Looks like you want to use …

_level1.createEmptyMovieClip("instance_name", 0);

That works great for naming variables but I’m confused about the use of variable names, instance names and symbol names.

Take this example:

var mcl:MovieClipLoader = new MovieClipLoader();
var variable_name:MovieClip = this.createEmptyMovieClip("instance_name", _level1)

mcl.addListener(this)
mcl.loadClip("1.jpg", instance_name)
mcl.loadClip("2.jpg", variable_name)

You’ll find it loads 2.jpg, but the debugger outputs this:

Level #0: Frame=1
Movie Clip: Frame=1 Target="_level0.instance_name"

Isn’t that confusing?

For this sake I name my corresponding variables, instances and symbols exactly the same. But I wish wouldn’t have to.