Freelance Flash programmers are required to know not only the Actionscript programming language, but have experience in the development of specific applications such as games. Flash programmers must also know how to write code that will access databases on both the server and client side.
Often, a specific Flash job requires a Flash programmer to be an expert in a specific technological aspect of Flash. For example, a Flash programmer may need the ability to work with XML data, or be able to create Flash applications for cellular phones with FlashLite.
Flash programmers also create software with the FLEX programming language. Both Flash and FLEX are based on Actionscript; however, FLEX permits programmers to write more sophisticated programs, because it lets the programmer represent graphic objects not only with Actionscript, but with MXML scripts also.
A web programmer needs to know HTML, DHTML, CSS and XML mark up languages. Dreamweaver, an application software program from Adobe, is a popular framework that web programmers often use. The most advanced web programmers also have an excellent working knowledge of Javascript, the JAVA scripting language, PHP, a server based network programming language and MySQL, a database programming language designed to work well with PHP.
3D developers design the algorithms used to make objects appear three-dimensional on the computer screen. They do not usually write code, but direct their efforts to the development of mathematical formulas that will be transcribed into computer code. They are often required to program with different languages such as C++. In addition, they are required to know how different types of 2D and 3D computer programs work.