Product Description In this book, authors Rich Shupe and Zevan Rosser share the knowledge they've gained from their years as multimedia developers/designers and teachers. Learning ActionScript 3.0 gives you a solid foundation in the language of Flash and demonstrates how you can use it for practical, everyday projects. The authors do more than just give you a collection of sample scripts. Written for those of you new to ActionScript 3.0, the book describes how ActionScript and Flash work, giving you a clear look into essential topics such as logic, event handling, displaying content, migrating legacy projects to ActionScript 3.0, classes, and much more. You will learn important techniques through hands-on exercises, and then build on those skills as chapters progress. ActionScript 3.0 represents a significant change for many Flash users, and a steeper learning curve for the uninitiated. This book will help guide you through a variety of scripting scenarios. Rather than relying heavily on prior knowledge of object-oriented programming (OOP), topics are explained in focused examples that originate in the timeline, with optional companion classes for those already comfortable with their use. As chapters progress, the book introduces more and more OOP techniques, allowing you to choose which scripting approach you prefer. Learning ActionScript 3.0 reveals: New ways to harness the power and performance of AS3 Common mistakes that people make with the language Essential coverage of text, sound, video, XML, drawing with code, and more Migration issues from AS1 and AS2 to AS3 Simultaneous development of procedural and object-oriented techniques Tips that go beyond simple script collections, including how toapproach a project and which resources can help you along the way The companion web site contains material for all the exercises in the book, as well as short quizzes to make sure you're up to speed with key concepts. ActionScript 3.0 is a different animal from previous versions, and Learning ActionScript 3.0 teaches everything that web designers, GUI-based Flash developers, and those new to ActionScript need to start using the language. Praise "The best ActionScript book ever written." -Lee Brimelow, Creator of The Flash Blog
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
Awesome Book to Learn From:
EXCELLENT BOOK. If your new to actionscript 3 or just new to actionscript period , this book will help you catch up with it. You will feel confident as you go through the book and practice examples. What I really liked is that while the book is showing you how to code with actionscript 3, the examples will even apply to actionscript 2 or 1 ( with different coding of course, but the principle idea is great) I would really recommend you pick up this book.
most accessible overview/intro to AS3 available.:
First off: if you havent written any code, ever, im pretty sure this book isnt for you. If, however, youve written some AS2, or even AS3, and thrown up your hands in frustration, you've found the right title.
Before I read Learning AS3, I had read more complex books like Essential AS3 and AS3 Bible, and written some AS3 and some AS3/MXML and a bunch of procedural AS2 and AS1; not a novice. But the hard edges of the new version of the language were still unclear to me, as I'd read tons of theory... more info
Excellent Starting Point for Migrating to ActionScript 3:
I first became interested Learning ActionScript 3 after initially reading a few samples posted on Adobe's website. What I found was an excellent starting point that drove me to finally make the jump from ActionScript 1 and 2. In practice, most books I have read about ActionScript 3 focus on the Flex platform, which is outside of what I'm looking for. Rather, I needed something that focused on developing in the Flash IDE (Flash CS3 as of this review), which is exactly what this book is written for. I... more info
Worth the price of admission.:
If you're new to programming in general, as another reviewer said, "Look elsewhere." But if you've got a little knowledge of javascript, C++, or even FORTRAN (yikes!), feel free to grab this book and jump in. I'm in agreement with Lou Costello, regarding the drawbacks of this book. However, there are a lot of good things, too, like great examples and, as noted, the companion website. If you can get around a pageful of code fairly well, are geek enough to enjoy debugging a few minor typos in... more info
