I received an email in response to my blog post on creating an image marquee component... "Could you do something similar with text?" - they asked.

BUT OF COURSE! I initially started the reply by digging through a bucket load of bookmarks and pasting the link to Peter Ent's Scrolling Text Component article... and then got the curious bug to take a look at his source.

The requirements that I was given weren't for all kinds of fancy... just a component that scrolled some text like movie credits. My approach is similar to Peter's - we both use a masking technique to give the control the appearance that the text within is scrolling. From there he uses a Label control and I use a UITextfield... blah blah blah.

Why didn't I just use his? I guess I could have - but I thought that is might be nice for Flex noobies (I say that with love in my heart) to see and compare two implementations. The moral of the story is: "Diversity teaches principles and variation ensures employability." If you've signed as many NDAs as I have... you'll know what I mean.

The rest (linked below) is history. Knock yourself out with a right click to view source. Again... remember, oh, remember my sons that masks are our friends!

[ source: scrolling label ]