ActionScript: The Definitive Guide

Acknowledgments

I am honored to know, privileged to work with, and deeply indebted to the following people:

• The tremendously talented Flash team at Macromedia, who through constant innovation have shaped a medium, and who recognize the people behind the terminals that constitute the Web. Macromedia’s combination of professionalism, exploration, and personal passion is rare within the construct of a corporation.

• The consummate professionals at O’Reilly: Tim O’Reilly, Troy Mott, Mike Sierra, Rob Romano, Edie Freedman, and the many copyeditors, indexers, proofreaders, and sales and marketing folks who helped bring this book to the shelves.

• Derek Clayton, my personal programming mentor and friend. In addition to providing almost-daily code advice, Derek contributed the Perl code in Chapter 17, and schooled me in Quake far too many times. He also wrote an XMLSocket server in Java and a generic flat file database system in Perl, both available from the online Code Depot.

• Wendy Schaffer, who, in addition to proofreading the first draft of the manuscript, bore the task of supporting me with love and life during the all-consuming task of writing this book.

• Bruce Epstein, who served as the developmental editor, helping to refine nearly every sentence in the manuscript, often contributing content to round out topics. Bruce’s insightful editorial work and guidance were invaluable.

• Gary Grossman, the creator of ActionScript at Macromedia, who somehow always found time to answer questions, explain ...