Flash and AS3 links - documentation

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References, documentation, and manuals on-line

Tip: Since the help pane in CS3 can't be really detached, better use Adobe's on-line help.

See also

Across the board

Cheatsheets

Language References and Live Docs

(It's not really obvious to find things at Adobe. There is much more documentation that one might think at first glance ...)

  • Flex Live Docs (for ActionScript 3 programming). For programmers only.

Online manuals

Other documentation

  • ActionScript 3 from Adobelabs. Maybe superseded by the above doc, maybe not ...

Migrating from AS2 to AS3

Rapid Overviews/Presentations

Books

Flash CS3

No idea if they are any good, except Veer, The Missing Manual which is great for learning drawing and the Flash CS3 tool. It doesn't cover ActionScript 3.

  • Adobe Creative Team (2007). Adobe Flash CS3 Professional Classroom in a Book. ISBN 0321499824
  • Anderson, Andy (2007). Adobe Flash CS3 Professional On Demand. ISBN 0789736926 592 pages.
  • Finkelstein Ellen and Gurdy Leete (2007). Flash CS3 For Dummies. ISBN 0470121009, 408 pages.
  • Gerantabee, Fred (August ? 2007). Dynamic Learning: Flash CS3 Professional. ISBN 10 0-596-51058-6
  • Veer, E.A. Vander and Chris Grover (2007). Flash CS3: The Missing Manual. ISBN 0596510446 - 527 pages. - O'Reilly page (From reviews on the web, this looks like the most suitable one for starters. The example files can be found on the Missing CD-ROM page. Daniel K. Schneider bought this and I think it's ok, can be used as a textbook, if you agree to cover topics by topics v.s a more project-oriented approach.)
  • Morris David (2007). Creating a Web Site with Flash CS3 Professional: Visual QuickProject Guide. ISBN 0321503007

AS3

  • Moock, Colin, Essential Actionscript 3.0, O'Reilly. ISBN 0596526946. Read it (widged). This is a quite good book. It tries to do two things (1) provide a large overview of the ActionScript 3.0 language and (2) Provide a complex example of a quite complex program. The overview works well. I am not sure about the zoo example. It gives an idea of the way such a program gets written the OO way, but it's not clear that the book covers enough of the basics of OO programming to have you able to do more than copy, paste, and compile the code provided. The book works best for persons who start with actionscript and want to become acquainted with the different aspects of the language. One of the best books available. Keep in mind, however, that it has "essential" in the tiel. until a book "Actionscript 3.0, the definitive guide" becomes available. Something great about the book is that it is completely tool neutral. It is clearly explained how to run the code on either of Flash CS3, Flex Builder, Flex. Of Interest, codes and examples from the book are available on the author's website.
  • Gary Rosenzweig, Flash Game University, Que (1st Ed.). ISBN 0789737027. All code in actionscript 3. I didn't have a chance to read it yet. Had a look at the code kindly provided on their website when the book was still in press (there is a notice that you should be buying the book if you want to make use of the code). Keeps away from OO programming for the most part. This can make it super-easy for an AS2 coder to get started with AS3. But this prevents you from taking the habit to organize your code more efficiently. Comes with support forum and code examples.

Flex

  • Programming Flex 2: The comprehensive guide to creating rich media applications with Adobe Flex, by Chafic Kazoun, Joey Lott. O'Reilly. ISBN 059652689X. Read it (widged). Very nice book. Ideal to get you started with Flex without any knowledge whatsoever of Actionscript or Flash (I had never programmed in Flash before reading that book). The first chapters are easy to follow, making sure that nobody will fall off the boat. The last chapters cover quite advanced concepts very efficiently.
  • Adobe Flex 2: Training from the Source, by Jeff Tapper, Matt Boles, James Talbot, Ben Elmore, Mike Labriola. Adobe Press. ISBN 032142316X. Had the merit to be one of the very first books on Flex 2. The title of the book reflects the fact that the approach taken here is to go through all that is required to create a complex enough on-line shop application. The application is being progressively written and you get precise information about why things get to be coded that way. It's a good book, especially if you are interested in the prospect of designing very modular applications. Its primary target is however freelance developers and really not students who want to learn how to write a mini-game.

Intermediate

  • Object-Oriented ActionScript 3.0, by Peter Elst, Sas Jacobs, Todd Yard. Friends of ED. ISBN 1590598458. I read a prior edition, on OO ActionScript not yet 3.0. An excellent book to learn the OO concepts behind AS3. The code mixes clear explanations and interesting enough examples (tweening animation, video medias, etc.). It also gives valuable tips on how to improve your coding practices by documenting your code and planning your design. Code examples can be downloaded from the FoED website.

Advanced concepts

  • ActionScript 3.0 Design Patterns: Object Oriented Programming Techniques, by William Sanders, Chandima Cumaranatunge, O'Reilly. ISBN 0596528469.
  • Advanced ActionScript 3 with Design Patterns by Joey Lott and Danny Patterson, Adobe Press (1st Ed.) ISBN 0321426568. Had the merit to be out very early, right after Flex 2.0 got out. Didn't work for me. The O'Reilly book seems better.
  • Head First Design Patterns, by Eric Freeman, Elisabeth Freeman, Kathy Sierra, Bert Bates. O'Reilly. ISBN 0596007124. Nothing to do with Flash or ActionScript 3 but a splendid book to familiarize yourself with a design pattern approach to programming. Particularly suit learners who suffer with traditional teaching formats and are open to the idea of having fun when learning. The tone is light and friendly, but the content is real smart. Each chapter is made about half of theory and half of practice. The exercises proposed are really clever and really get you understand the concepts in more depth than when reading a more theoretical book. Code snippets are in Java, so you need at least to have reached the intermediate level in AS3 to be able to transfer the examples and practice from Java to AS3. Because of that, perhaps not worth investing your money... but you can probably get it easily enough from a library or a friend.
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