Flash. A Love or Hate Relationship

Hello fellow bloggers. I have been working on a project to improve the user interface on a machine (can’t give too much detail I signed a NDA ;) ). Anyway I have been using Adobe Flash to create an interactive interface, and I have never been so frustrated in my life! At the same time I love the end results I am getting. I guess I’m just not use to using ActionScript. The main problem that I want to throw out to the world is how do you make a dial? I only learned how to make buttons, and the buttons don’t effectively convey the functionality of my design. It is so frustrating! Is Flash really the best program to use to create a user interface with buttons and knobs? At this point I am not so sure. Flash seems like a great program to use for web design and has a lot of versatility. Maybe the problem is I am too much of a novice. I think I am going to go buy a book. Flash could become a vital tool in my tool kit and I might as well take advantage of my free time to learn it while I am still in school. I just wish ActionScript were more familiar to me like C++ is. I am also interested in learning web design. Is Flash the best place to start or should I look into HTML? Thanks!