In my free time (right!) over the past few months, I’ve been working on some basic ActionScript 3.0 projects to familiarize myself with the new version. I’ve been using FlashDevelop linked into the Flex SDK to write and compile my code. While I have no gripes with Flex Builder 2, I find it amazing that anyone can just download the Flex SDK for free and start producing Flash with pure ActionScript. I’ve lately been very focused on keeping my code clean and self-contained. With AS2, I’ve always needed to tie everything to an FLA in the Flash IDE, even if working primarily with external classes in FlashDevelop or SEPY. Having a pure AS3 environment is huge. One of my favorite new features is the ability to set document properties through your package definition.
package {
import flash.display.Sprite;
[SWF(width="400", height="350", backgroundColor="#000000", frameRate="31")]
public class SomeClass extends Sprite {}
}
I haven’t used AS3 for any real world projects yet, but with so many benefits over AS2 already realized from simple exercises, I know the day is fast approaching. I may begin a series of posts on the benefits of using AS3 over AS2 as I encounter these things in my work.
What is the best resource for learning AS3? I’ve looked for books, but have only really found the AS3 cookbook (not really what I *think* I’m looking for)… is there a good web resource that I’m missing (probably something on adobes site that I’m overlooking) or a good book on the subject of learning AS3?
I have no AS experience at all. I do know a fair amount of javascript, and since both JS and AS are based on ECMA script, I assume that the syntax won’t be terribly difficult.
Any suggestions?
Well, I just found exactly what I was looking for online (on adobe’s site… of course)… I’d still be interested in a book, but now that I’ve found the online docs, I’m cool. :o)
Coming from heavy, day-to-day experience with ActionScript 2.0, I’ve found the cookbook to be pretty handy. A developer who knows AS already just needs to see what has changed and the cookbook is really nice for that sort of reference. I haven’t come across any basic ‘learn AS3 from scratch’ books yet though. I teach a lot of college courses in Flash and try to keep up on the literature available. If anyone has any recommendations for a beginners AS3 text, it would be useful to me for these purposes as well.