Essential ActionScript 3.0 (Essential)
by Colin Moock
Explanations For Every Aspect Of Actionscript 3
ActionScript 3.0 is a huge upgrade to Flashs programming language. The
enhancements to ActionScripts performance, feature set, ease of use,
cleanliness, and sophistication are considerable. Essential ActionScript 3.0
focuses on the core language and object-oriented programming, along with
the Flash Player API. Essential ActionScript has become the #1 resource
for the Flash and ActionScript development community, and the reason is
the author, Colin Moock. Many people even refer to it simply as The Colin
Moock book. And for good reason: No one is better at turning
ActionScript inside out, learning its nuances and capabilities, and then
explaining everything in such an accessible way. Colin Moock is not just a
talented programmer and technologist; hes also a gifted teacher.
Essential ActionScript 3.0 is a radically overhauled update to Essential
ActionScript 2.0. True to its roots, the book once again focuses on the core
language and object-oriented programming, but also adds a deep look at
the centerpiece of Flash Players new API: display programming. Enjoy

hundreds of brand new pages covering exciting new language features,
such as the DOM-based event architecture, E4X, and namespaces--all
brimming with real-world sample code. The ActionScript 3.0 revolution is
here, and Essential ActionScript 3.0s steady hand is waiting to guide you
through it.
Personal Review: Essential ActionScript 3.0 (Essential) by Colin
Moock
This book is totally unlike other books on ActionScript, and that is both its
strength and its weakness.
First of all, the claim that this book could be used by someone with no
knowledge of programming is laughable and misleading. Chapter One
goes through all of Object Oriented Programming, including such arcana
as page 22's "Access-control modifiers for instance variables." No one
without programming experience can understand why or how this woud be
useful or learn how to use it. If you haven't done programming, choose a
different book.
Other books begin with the Flash environment, and introduce bits of
ActionScript on the timeline in an inductive manner:
on (press) {
amountPaid = Number(paid.text);
amountOwed = Number(owed.text);
}
You'll see none of that in this book, except for Chapter 29, which
introduces programming in the Flash environment. None of the code sits
on the timeline--this is ActionScript as a programming langusage, with
packages, and stand-alone code files.
On the positive side, this book really does explain the language as a
language, so for us programmers, there's no need to wonder about syntax,
language features, error handling, etc.--it's all here. You'll learn how to
create objects with their own events and listeners, about dynamic instance
variables, about using try...catch...throw...finally error handling, and many
other features unlikely to be covered in other books on ActionScript.
Because ActionScript is specific to Flash (and Flex), the book does cover
the events you'll care about: mouse activity, key presses, screen updating,
ENTER_FRAME vs. timer, stage resizing, loading, and so on. It provides
excellent information on sandboxes and security I did not know and does a
good job of dealing with text fields from a programming perspective. So it
does cover much of value in the Flash context, and that in more detail than
other ActionScript books I've read.
In summary, I find this more of a reference book than a tutorial. For the
topics it covers, it goes into great depth. If you are a game developer or
are writing a major application, you need this book. On the other hand, if
you want to develop simple Flash programs and want to buy only one

book, this isn't it. It won't teach you the simplest basics (putting stop(); on
frame 1 of a movie clip) that you need for practical Flash programming. As
a reference, however, it's indispensible.
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