Question

Is there any difference between:

distance = point1.subtract(point2).length;

and

distance = Point.distance(point1, point2);

Answer 1

Since this question is tagged Optimization, the longhand for the pythagorean theorem will be the most efficient way to find the distance between two points in AS3, provided that you don’t:

1. Instantiate an object while doing it
2. Call any more Math functions than necessary (manually do an Abs, for example)
3. Don’t actually call any functions if you can help it

Almost all the built-in methods are conveniences. They’re not optimized for speed.