Learning ActionScript 3.0

PREFACE

When deciding if the book in your hands will be a good resource for your library, it might help you to know why we, the authors, wrote this particular book. We are both developers who use Flash extensively in our everyday work, but we are also teachers. Collectively, we have taught thousands of students at multiple universities, training facilities, and conferences, and yet we share one significant common experience. We were consistently told that no feature-rich ActionScript book satisfied this beginner audience.

At first we were surprised at how truly overwhelming this sentiment was, but then we realized that we didn’t have enough information to form an opinion. We didn’t use beginner resources in our work and had only our own curriculum to go on. So, we started to research how we could fill this void and provide a book to our students that would really help them beyond the classroom. We talked with a lot of students, user groups, and instructors and began to sketch out a book that we thought would put what we learned into practice.

When ActionScript 3.0 was released, the interested audience grew dramatically. Reactions ranged from excitement to uncertainty to fear, as the ActionScript 3.0 learning curve became apparent. Talk of the Flash Platform splintering into Flex (“developer”) and Flash (“designer”) camps left many designers and beginner programmers more uncertain than ever about their futures. When Flash CS3 Professional was released, the need for a guiding resource ...