ActionScript: The Definitive Guide: Mastering Flash Programming

Given its ability to deliver high-impact multimedia, Flash has become the de facto standard for multimedia web developers worldwide. Flash 5 includes a new full-fledged programming language, "ActionScript," that controls animation and multimedia, and includes all common programming constructs (such as variables, loops, conditionals, and functions). ActionScript for Flash 5 is a quantum leap from previous versions, and ActionScript: The Definitive Guide is the first book dedicated entirely to documenting and demonstrating the ActionScript programming language. ActionScript: The Definitive Guide is structured so both programmers and non-programmers can learn how to use ActionScript. This book will take you well beyond simple Flash animations so you can create your own enhanced Flash-driven sites.

Macromedia Flash is the obvious choice for delivering multimedia over the Web. At the heart of Flash's power is ActionScript, the product's powerful object-oriented scripting language. ActionScript is based on JavaScript, making it easy for Web developers new to Flash to get up to speed. ActionScript: The Definitive Guide is a tutorial and reference to ActionScript that meets the needs of both new Flash developers learning the language and experienced coders who need a daily reference.

Author Colin Moock starts off with a primer to Flash terminology and a quick example application--an interactive quiz. Following that, the book quickly gets down to ActionScript nuts and bolts. The first part covers the basics of the language, such as operators, variable scope, and conditional logic, in a traditional presentation. A few lines of example code illustrate each concept.

Critical topics like arrays, movie clips, and object-oriented programming are covered well at the detail level, though a more extensive example application would really have come in handy to illustrate the big picture. The back of the book contains an excellent reference to the ActionScript language, complete with inline example code. ActionScript is an important tool to master, and ActionScript: The Definitive Guide is a fine means to that end. --Stephen W. Plain