Learning ActionScript 3.0: A Beginner's Guide [Paperback]

Rich Shupe (Author), Zevan Rosser (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 4, 2008 | ISBN-10: 059652787X | ISBN-13: 978-0596527877 | Edition: 1st

In this book, authors Rich Shupe and Zevan Rosser share the knowledge they've gained from their years as multimedia developers/designers and teachers. Learning ActionScript 3.0 gives you a solid foundation in the language of Flash and demonstrates how you can use it for practical, everyday projects.

The authors do more than just give you a collection of sample scripts. Written for those of you new to ActionScript 3.0, the book describes how ActionScript and Flash work, giving you a clear look into essential topics such as logic, event handling, displaying content, migrating legacy projects to ActionScript 3.0, classes, and much more. You will learn important techniques through hands-on exercises, and then build on those skills as chapters progress.

ActionScript 3.0 represents a significant change for many Flash users, and a steeper learning curve for the uninitiated. This book will help guide you through a variety of scripting scenarios. Rather than relying heavily on prior knowledge of object-oriented programming (OOP), topics are explained in focused examples that originate in the timeline, with optional companion classes for those already comfortable with their use. As chapters progress, the book introduces more and more OOP techniques, allowing you to choose which scripting approach you prefer.

Learning ActionScript 3.0 reveals:

• New ways to harness the power and performance of AS3
• Common mistakes that people make with the language
• Essential coverage of text, sound, video, XML, drawing with code, and more
• Migration issues from AS1 and AS2 to AS3
• Simultaneous development of procedural and object-oriented techniques
• Tips that go beyond simple script collections, including how to approach a project and which resources can help you along the way

The companion web site contains material for all the exercises in the book, as well as short quizzes to make sure you're up to speed with key concepts. ActionScript 3.0 is a different animal from previous versions, and Learning ActionScript 3.0 teaches everything that web designers, GUI-based Flash developers, and those new to ActionScript need to start using the language.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Product Description
In this book, authors Rich Shupe and Zevan Rosser share the knowledge they've gained from their years as multimedia developers/designers and teachers. Learning ActionScript 3.0 gives you a solid foundation in the language of Flash and demonstrates how you can use it for practical, everyday projects. The authors do more than just give you a collection of sample scripts. Written for those of you new to ActionScript 3.0, the book describes how ActionScript and Flash work, giving you a clear look into essential topics such as logic, event handling, displaying content, migrating legacy projects to ActionScript 3.0, classes, and much more. You will learn important techniques through hands-on exercises, and then build on those skills as chapters progress. ActionScript 3.0 represents a significant change for many Flash users, and a steeper learning curve for the uninitiated. This book will help guide you through a variety of scripting scenarios. Rather than relying heavily on prior knowledge of object-oriented programming (OOP), topics are explained in focused examples that originate in the timeline, with optional companion classes for those already comfortable with their use. As chapters progress, the book introduces more and more OOP techniques, allowing you to choose which scripting approach you prefer. Learning ActionScript 3.0 reveals: New ways to harness the power and performance of AS3 Common mistakes that people make with the language Essential coverage of text, sound, video, XML, drawing with code, and more Migration issues from AS1 and AS2 to AS3 Simultaneous development of procedural and object-oriented techniques Tips that go beyond simple script collections, including how toapproach a project and which resources can help you along the way The companion web site contains material for all the exercises in the book, as well as short quizzes to make sure you're up to speed with key concepts. ActionScript 3.0 is a different animal from previous versions, and Learning ActionScript 3.0 teaches everything that web designers, GUI-based Flash developers, and those new to ActionScript need to start using the language.

Praise
"The best ActionScript book ever written."
-Lee Brimelow, Creator of The Flash Blog

About the Author

Rich Shupe has been designing and developing with Flash since it was called FutureSplash, and has been teaching ActionScript programming to all levels of students since ActionScript became available. He founded his own training and development company, FMA, in 1995, and has been its president and technical director ever since. He is a recognized authority on several technologies, including Flash, Director and QuickTime. In addition to his production experience, Rich has been teaching professionally for 10 years, and is a full-time faculty member at New York's School of Visual Arts' Computer Art Dept. in both the Bachelors and Masters programs. He has also taught or lectured internationally for such organizations as London's Royal Academy of Art, Manchester's Museum of Science and Industry, New York University, and United Digital Artists, as well as trade shows such as MacWorld, QuickTime Live, FlashForward, Macromedia DevCon, and more. In a previous life, he worked with rock band/performance-art pioneers The Residents.

Zevan Rosser is a freelance designer/programmer/consultant and computer artist. He teaches ActionScript and Flash animation at New York's School of Visual Arts and FMA. When he's not working on commercial projects he works on his personal site, http://www.shapevent.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly/Adobe Developer Library; 1st edition (January 4, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 059652787X
• ISBN-13: 978-0596527877
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 1 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (88 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #384,916 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #38 in Books > Computers & Technology > Programming > Graphics & Multimedia > Flash
  • #66 in Books > Computers & Technology > Home Computing & How-to > Web Browsers

More About the Author

Rich Shupe has been teaching ActionScript programming to students of all levels since the language became available. He founded his own training and development company, FMA, in 1995. A recognized authority on several technologies, including Flash, Director and QuickTime, Rich is a full-time faculty member at New York's School of Visual Arts' Computer Art Department. His highly acclaimed "Learning ActionScript 3.0" has been called "The best book on ActionScript ever written" by evangelist and Flash community leader Lee Brimelow.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

398 of 422 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars The more I read it, the more I hate it. April 18, 2008

By Rob T VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

First, please note that many of the 5-star reviews are written by experienced Flash professionals, who already have actionscript expertise -- and that makes them poor judges of how clear this book will be to a beginning audience.

The book is explicitly written for beginners, but the authors often have a poor grasp on what readers know. On one page they start talking about "trapping" events. What does that mean? Who knows?

I have a good math background, so I was able to decipher the math chapter, but it contains explanations like, "A radian is the angle of a circle subtended by an arc along its circumference that is the length of the circle's radius (hence the name, radian)." What's the point of writing a sentence like that? Will it be understood by anyone who doesn't already know what a radian is? Has a math newbie even ever heard the word "subtend"? This casual use of undefined jargon happens in every chapter.

Also, sometimes they're just wrong. They say that a ball moving 4 pixels to the right and 4 pixels down per second will have a velocity of 4 pixels per second in a south southeast direction. No. The Pythagorean theorem (which they explain, badly, in the next section), says the ball will be moving more than 5.6 pixels per second. And the direction is southeast.

The book really is full of typos, and they're not all caught in the errata. The only way to know if the code is correct is to to go the website and download the code being discussed in the book. The files you download will have the correct code (though before you check the code, as you're reading the book you're thinking, "Do I not understand, or is this code wrong?") Unfortunately, the book sometimes refers to these files by the wrong name, so you have to figure out which file to open. That's really inexcusable -- how hard would it be for the authors to go to their own website and correctly name the files?

Another random, infuriating example of the book's sloppiness: on page 144, the authors state a line of code "g.curveTo(275, 0, 400, 100);". In the context of the chapter, the hardest part of this code to understand is the "275, 0" and it's the one part they don't bother to explain!

And as long as I'm ranting (I just threw the book down to come and write this), the authors often put unnecessary lines into the code. I'm left trying to figure it out, wondering, "Why did they put that there? Is it necessary?" so I try the code without the extra material, and it still works fine. But the authors never explain why it's there, so while you're trying to learn to read actionscript, wanting to understand the importance of each line and its relationship to the rest of the example, you're thinking, "Am I just missing the importance of this line? Or does it have no importance?" Learners shouldn't be left to wonder those things!

It's a maddening book, full of unexplained terminology (I just found the phrase, "dedicated canvas"; huh?), incomplete explanations, bloated code, and many, many errors.

43 of 49 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Not for a beginner July 30, 2008

By Lou Costello

Format:Paperback

I'm a beginner to Flash but not to scripting, programming and graphical applications in general. If you're looking for a true beginners book skip this one. The book states right on the cover that its aimed at "those new to ActionScript, visual learners" Well I've programmed in many languages, and am fluent in all kinds of applications and this book is definitely NOT targeted at a non-programmer or a beginner.

The book immediately jumps to jargon frequently asking the reader to ignore the jargon as it will be explained later. For example the initial chapters are laced with descriptions of "class" but the actual discussion of class does not occur until chapter six. That's a long time to go trying to read pages of class discussion with no clear definition.

The book states clearly that it is not a reference. This means it can avoid creating a strong set of appendices or a good glossary. Don't know a term (which if you're new you won't), don't turn to this book to fill it in. Want a list of possible commands - look elsewhere.

The book claims to be for "visual learners" yet most of the examples do virtually nothing visually. Instead the example are a bunch of esoteric theoretical examples meant to give you the "philosophy" about using a particular command or structure, instead of a commonplace example. When the commonplace examples are given, frequently they're at the end of the chapter and not described - instead "by now you should be able to understand how this code works."

The book does not strongly tie ActionScript to the flash timeline (this will get me flamed). Sure they state often that you now can tie your actions to objects, but if you're a beginner then you need to describe how.

The book is on its first printing and is filled with errors and typos. Luckily I have a background in working with edge programs and first printings always come with this burden. Here the burden is deadly to the beginner who can easily spend hours trying to figure out whats going wrong only to learn it was a typo.

Now all that said, this is a good book. The authors are trying. I think the real problem is the authors are use to teaching this subject in person to a class, using the book as a class guide. With an instructor available the book could be used. However without an instructor present, this is a terrible uphill battle.

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Starting Point for Migrating to ActionScript 3 August 3, 2008

By Alexander C. Baker

Format:Paperback

I first became interested Learning ActionScript 3 after initially reading a few samples posted on Adobe's website. What I found was an excellent starting point that drove me to finally make the jump from ActionScript 1 and 2. In practice, most books I have read about ActionScript 3 focus on the Flex platform, which is outside of what I'm looking for. Rather, I needed something that focused on developing in the Flash IDE (Flash CS3 as of this review), which is exactly what this book is written for.

I picked it up as supplement material to aid me in programming a large game programming project. Basically, I've referenced this book to understand the key concepts needed for my game, borrowing code samples where needed and applying them to my own project. In practice, it's the application here that really teaches the concept, and I've found that this book is a great starting point as well as reference for grasping these concepts.

The authors have done a great job presenting the material in an easily-readable casual conversation style. Of these discussions, I particularly found their comparisons to the previous versions of the language most satisfying. As AS3 is very different from AS1/2, I appreciate learning what was changed and why.

I can not vouch for the beginner's guide level for this book. I came into this book as an intermediate ActionScript programmer and often found myself skimming over any discussion on the details of some of the programs. For the most part, the code is easy enough to read and get the point, and if I had questions, these were almost always addressed in the discussion. That said, I think this book is ideal for any intermediate programmer looking to make the jump to AS3.

I am aware that there are some errata in this book, and to that extent, I can simply comment that the website is well maintained, code samples there seem accurate. No problems here.

All in all, I would highly recommend Learning ActionScript 3 as a great companion book for anyone looking to get started programming with ActionScript 3.