flash - actionscript 3 init()

Question

I have often seen an init() within the constructor of AS3 classes, sometimes even being the only code in the constructor. Why would it be useful to do this, if you could simply use the constructor function itself to initialize a class?

package 
{

    import flash.display.Sprite;

    public class Example extends Sprite
    {

        public function Example()
        {
            init();                 
        }

        public function init ( ):void
        {

         //initialize here

        }

    }

}

Answer 1

In ActionScript 3, constructor code is always interpreted rather than compiled. I believe moving the code into an init() function may allow it to be compiled and optimized.

http://blog.pixelbreaker.com/flash/as30-jit-vs-interpreted/