Brajeshwar

I remember starting off beta testing huge bunch of ActionScript codes from Joey Lott which was supposed to be for the ActionScript 2.0 CookBook. However, at that juncture there was an announcement of ActionScript 3.0 from Macromedia (now part of Adobe) and the whole development shifted to - what is today the ActionScript 3.0 Cookbook by Joey Lott - from O’Reilly.

ActionScript 3.0 Cookbook is written by Joey Lott along with Darron Schall and Keith Peters. It is another must-have book for any beginner to intermediate ActionScript Programmer.

Very much like any other CookBoook, this book gets to the point right away with over 300+ example codes. It is not a book to teach you ActionScript 3.0 from scratch but assumes that you know AS 3.0 and wanted to get down dirty with codes right away. The book will suit those who wish to get down coding with examples - code it, test it and publish it - at an instant. It is also for those who wish to keep a libray of commonly used examples in AS 3.0.

The books covers almost all the topics on ActionScript 3.0. Besides the usual ActionScript basic, there are recipes on

• creation of ActionScript Packages
• the display list - addition, removal of items, moving objects
• creation of custom visual classes
• loading external images at runtime with the display package
• application of the new enhanced and added drawing classes
• filters and transforms
• basic to advanced manipulation of flash videos including cue points, filters, buffering etc.
• files upload, download and monitoring upload/download progress
• usage of the enhanced socket server in Flash Player 9

For all those new Flash Developers starting afresh or moved from another programming language (Java, .NET), this book should be of immense help. Honestly, I would not really say that this book is for advanced veteran ActionScript programmers and won’t really like to keep it as a reference as against new/intermediate developers. Nonetheless, I would suggest a read through of this book even for advanced developers to re-shake their ActionScript skill.

The book has an Indian print priced at Rs. 475 and is available at Computer BookShop. The US copy is priced at $26.39.

Errata: Here are few errors that I found in the book.

• On the page dedicated to Adobe Developer Library; as the hyphenation in their Desktop Publishing Software kicks in, we see that the link to Adobe Developer Library is adobedeveloper-library.com. This is wrong and it should adobedeveloperlibrary.com.

Note:

• Download all the ActionScript 3.0 codes used in the book from the book’s accompanying website.
• I’ll do a reivew of Colin Moock’s Essential ActionScript 3.0 as soon as I get my review copy.

REFERENCES

• ActionScript 3.0 CookBook - at O’Reilly or at Amazon
• The earlier ActionScript CookBook
• O’Reilly’s CookBooks
• Adobe® ActionScript 3.0 Language Reference
• Migrate your ActionScript 2.0 codes to ActionScript 3.0 (PDF)
• Adobe® Flex™