AS3: Live drawing? - actionscript-3

Question

I have one strange problem, if I use graphics.lineTo while moving the mouse (MOUSE_MOVE), the lines are created live. But if I change it to MOUSE_DOWN, the lines are straight, and unresponsive if the mouse is still being pressed.
Here's an example:
stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_MOVE, follow);
stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, draw);
private function follow(e:MouseEvent){
trace(e.localY);
activeChalk.x = e.stageX;
activeChalk.y = e.stageY;
}
private function draw(e:MouseEvent){
trace(e.localY);
activeChalk.x = e.stageX;
activeChalk.y = e.stageY;
board.graphics.lineTo(e.stageX,e.stageY);
}
EDIT: I managed to make it to work using the following example:
http://www.foundation-flash.com/tutorials/as3drawingbymouse/

Answer 1

Your application is fundamentally flawed in a variety of ways.
Instead of going in to detail, here's a very simply implementation of drawing:
package
{
import flash.display.Graphics;
import flash.display.Sprite;
import flash.display.StageAlign;
import flash.display.StageScaleMode;
import flash.events.MouseEvent;
import flash.geom.Point;
[SWF(percentWidth = 100, percentHeight = 100, backgroundColor = 0xefefef, frameRate = 30)]
public class Chalk extends Sprite
{
protected var lastPoint:Point;
public function Chalk()
{
super();
stage.scaleMode = StageScaleMode.NO_SCALE;
stage.align = StageAlign.TOP_LEFT;
initializeDrawing();
}
protected function initializeDrawing():void
{
stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, mouseDownHandler);
}
protected function mouseDownHandler(event:MouseEvent):void
{
stage.removeEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, mouseDownHandler);
// mark mouse down location
lastPoint = new Point(mouseX, mouseY);
// listen for movement or up/out
stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_MOVE, mouseMoveHandler);
stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_UP, mouseUpHandler);
stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OUT, mouseUpHandler);
}
protected function mouseMoveHandler(event:MouseEvent):void
{
var g:Graphics = graphics;
g.lineStyle(1, 0x0000ff);
// draw line segment
g.moveTo(lastPoint.x, lastPoint.y);
g.lineTo(mouseX, mouseY);
// mark end of line segment
lastPoint = new Point(mouseX, mouseY);
}
protected function mouseUpHandler(event:MouseEvent):void
{
stage.removeEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_MOVE, mouseMoveHandler);
stage.removeEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_UP, mouseUpHandler);
stage.removeEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OUT, mouseUpHandler);
// prepare for next line
initializeDrawing();
}
}
}

Answer 2

Not really strange, a single MOUSE_DOWN event is dispatched when you click the mouse, thereafter MOUSE_MOVE events are dispatched.
You can simply trace your events to find out exactly what's happening.