Macromedia Flash MX Designer's ActionScript Reference

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.

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

I've read a number of flash MX manuals and this one is the best of them all. I learned a lot I hadn't known, and have found the reference section invaluable. It stays right by my feet in my office for quick perusal and reference. (There's no room at all on my desk.) This is the one to buy.

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.

Wow! This book is so completely thorough, it's amazing. Anything you want to know, from simple to advanced, is covered in detail in this book. It's 1100 pages, and all of that is quality content. The dictionary section alone is worth having by your side for every purpose, and it's more than 500 pages in length. The examples are all contained on a really cool CD, and the nice thing is, the book is designed for designers to completely pick up and learn or refer, yet it teaches the advanced topics in a totally intuitive way. I think this is the new desktop reference.