Macromedia Flash MX Designer's ActionScript Reference [Illustrated] [Paperback]

John Davey (Author), Glen Rhodes (Author), Jen deHaan (Author), Scott Mebberson (Author), Sham Bhangal (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2002

If you're serious about Flash design, and if you want to push your ideas to the very limits of possibility in Flash MX, then this book and CD are your indispensible companions.

The book and CD package combines two vital elements:

1. The most comprehensive and in-depth reference resource for Flash MX ActionScript
2. A collection of rich, practical tutorials on using ActionScript effectively in Flash movie design

We've packed in 20 chapters of tutorials, 100s of detailed reference entries, and 100s of example FLAs and SWFs. The CD reproduces and expands the book's Complete ActionScript Dictionary, providing a comprehensive and portable reference tool.

Our aim has been to make this book the best Flash MX ActionScript resource, bar none - the book that you'll keep on your desk and never exhaust. This book contains:

- The complete reference and illustrated guide to ActionScript
- Over 650 detailed reference entries
- Over 400 fully functional illustrative FLAs
- A-Z coverage of the ActionScript language
- Over 300 pages of addition text content on the CD

It's the real ActionScript Reference you've been waiting for.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

A bio is not available for this author.

Glen Rhodes started his mind going early in life, when he was about 4 years old. At that age, Glen began playing the piano, which was sitting unused in his family's house. He's been playing ever since. Later, in 1997, Glen co-wrote a full-length musical called Chrystanthia. Somewhere along the way, he picked up game programming as a hobby, and eventually ended up making games professionally for home console systems. Then, in 1998, Glen discovered how he could take all my experiences and combine them, when he discovered Flash. The rest is history. Glen shares his ideas on his website, GlenRhodes.com.

Jen deHaan is a freelance web designer and developer based in Calgary, Alberta. She has been involved in writing, contributing to or editing many computer books on Flash, ActionScript, digital video and ColdFusion in 2002. She has co-authored three books on ActionScript: Flash MX Designer's ActionScript Reference, ActionScript Zero to Hero, and Flash MX Components Most Wanted. Jen graduated with top honors from a top new media program, and also with a bachelor's in fine arts in developmental art from the University of Calgary. She is an experienced teacher and writer, focusing on integrating technologies for the Web using Flash MX. Jen's personal websites are ejepo.com and flash-mx.com.

Sham Bhangal has worked on books in new media for five years, during which time he has authored and co-authored numerous friends of ED books, including critically acclaimed, award-winning, and bestselling titles like Foundation Flash, New Masters of Flash, Flash MX Upgrade Essentials, Flash MX Most Wanted, and the Flash MX Designer's ActionScript Reference. He has considerable working experience with Macromedia and Adobe products, as well as other general web design technologies (such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, etc.). In addition to speaking appearances at FlashForward, the biggest Macromedia Flash developer conference, Sham has also been a beta tester for Macromedia and Discreet products for a number of years. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 1088 pages
• Publisher: Friends of ed; Bk&CD-Rom edition (September 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1903450586
• ISBN-13: 978-1903450581
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.6 x 2.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,325,856 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An awesome answer to my prayers!, September 25, 2002

By 

Carson Boult (Adelanto, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Macromedia Flash MX Designer's ActionScript Reference (Paperback)

I have longed for a total resource like this, for about two years. I thought the Moock book went part of the way but it was from a Javascript perspective and it was kinda feeble as a reference. But this book takes you all the way man and then some.

I thought Actionscript grew up a good load richer with MX, but somehow and amazingly Macromedia chose not to print the Actionscript reference like they used to with Flash 5 and I really missed that. This book supplies it in a really expanded, totally comprehensive form. And not just the reference, but you also get a 400 page section on what Actionscirpt is really all about (like, it's not just Javascript for vector-dogs) covering just about every question on the detail of working with Actionscript, simple, serious, and some scary. And what's best, in language I can make sense of, because I'm a designer and I'm smart differently from back-end developers. For me coding is for real, it's about what I can see and make move.

But that's not ALL you get, oh no. You then get the CD-ROM version of the dictionary, which in itself is something to amaze. Not just explanations of every element of Actionscript, but also real, worked FLAs and SWFs to illustrate the code in action.

For $... I don't get it. I worked in technical books in Oz and I can't think how we'd have done 1200 pages at that price. How are Sham and Glen and Jen and Tim and Scott getting paid out of that? Not to mention the guy who made the ace CD, I hope they get a fair shake.

It would be awesome as just a labor o' love. A thing of beauty is a joy forever and you just made one guys.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not JUST the best ever AS reference for designers..., February 15, 2003

By 

Fredrick Gutermuth "invisiblemonki" (Honolulu, Hawaii United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Macromedia Flash MX Designer's ActionScript Reference (Paperback)

I thought this would be a reference. Well guess what, I was wrong. This is a reference in the back half, but a How-To in the front half. I'd say, skip every other ActionScript book till you buy this one. If I'd known this would have tutorials in the first half (yes the first 400 or so pages are tutorials), I wouldn't have bought some of the other ones I have. Combined with the CD content, this book is a great first book for the intermediate animator moving into scripting. And, it will stay usefull for as long as you are using Flash MX. Between this book and the O'Reilly book "ActionScript for Flash MX: The Definitive Guide, Second Edition" by Colin Moock, you'll have all you really need. Then you can buy the specialized stuff on games or UI or whatever.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic book, November 26, 2002

By 

"studiowhiz" (New Zealand) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Macromedia Flash MX Designer's ActionScript Reference (Paperback)

Every now and then a book comes out that you've just got to have. If you're a flash person then this is one of those MUST HAVE BOOKS. For a start it's NOT that expensive (US$[money] rrp), secondly it's 1000+ pages of PURE reference.

Flash MX has moved leaps and bounds in the sense of just what can be done with the Action Scripting engine inside. However as many people have noted and complained Macromedia failed to ship a printed Action Script dictionary with it. This book steps up to that mark - not just with a list of the commands, but in depth explanations of them.

Loved it ... I use this book over and over and over. The only thing .. it's HUGE. I'm considering "snapping" the spine and getting the 2 halves bound ... one containing the AS Dictionary the other the first half of the book