Learning ActionScript 2.0 for Macromedia® Flash® 8

Chapter 5. Syntax and Language Fundamentals

Learning ActionScript syntax and statements is like learning how to put together words to make sentences, which you can then put together into paragraphs. ActionScript can be as simple. For example, in English, a period ends a sentence; in ActionScript, a semicolon ends a statement. In the ActionScript language, you can type a stop() action to stop the playhead of a movie clip instance or a SWF file from looping. Or you can write thousands of lines of code to power an interactive banking application. As you can see, ActionScript can do very simple or very complex things.

In Chapter 4, “Data and Data Types,” you learned how the ActionScript language uses data, and how you can format it in your code. This ...