Many of us learned ActionScript from the writings of Moock, specifically from his very first book ActionScript for Flash MX – The Definitive Guide, and now with several books under his built, and the introduction of ActionScript 3 as an overhaul of the ActionScript language, we needed Moock to teach us the language all over again, we know that he has worked closely with Adobe engineers and that he continues to knows Flash and ActionScript inside out better than anyone else.

ActionScript is no longer a simple language that is used to add little tricks to Flash intros and animated banners – it is now a proper development language that is used to create rich internet applications using Flex, desktop applications built on AIR, mobile games and applications in Flash Lite, and the good old flash websites and games we have known for so long. Teaching ActionScript has never been harder as the audience of those interested in learning Flash widened with intentions to use it in so many different platforms. It is impossible to create a book that will suite the needs of all of us, especially now as each of us might develop ActionScript using different tools and might deploy applications on different platforms.

Moock’s Essential ActionScript 3.0 aims to explain all the fundamentals of ActionScript 3.0 without concentrating on any specific development platform (Flash, Flex, or mxml). The book is divided into three main sections, the first is on the fundamentals of the language, the second is on display and interactivity, and the third is on some applied topics.

The first section of the book is the biggest, it explains in immense detail the core aspects of the language, programming basics, OOP, compiling, event handling, error handling, garbage collection, name spaces, XML, and other fundamentals. Moock explains each of these topics in a logical manner while using a semi-practical example for creating a Zoo application to illustrate the implication of these fundamentals in practice.

The second section of the book covers display and interactivity, both aspects have been completed changed from the previous versions of ActionScript. The book does not cover every single aspecterelated to these, but provides complete coverage of the basics classes involved with display and interactivity so that the reader can easily understand how similar unexplained processes are executed. (For example, the book does not cover loading external text files in detail, but covers in detail the process for loading graphical assets).

The last section of the book is the shortest and covers applied topics such as the Flash authoring tool, mxml, and the process for distributing a class library.

Essential ActionScript 3.0 is not a small book by any means as it has over 900 pages of in-depth explanation of the fundamentals of ActionScript, yet it does not, however, include a class-by-class ActionScript reference similar to the one included in Moock’s first book. The Essential ActionScript 3.0 is also not a cookbook as it does not provide any step-by-step procedure for creating any certain project or application and instead focuses on teaching fundamentals required for learning how to create any application.

This book is for those seriously interested in ActionScript and are determined to learn all the core fundamentals of the language and OOP. This is not a book for a Flash designer interested in adding a little functionality to his project as the book is so deep and comprehensive it would be an overkill to serve a little task.

If you are looking for the book to teach you all the fundamentals you need to learn how to leverage the power of ActionScript then Essential ActionScript 3.0 is for you: Moock’s style is easy to follow and fun and he knows ActionScript inside-out. The book does not assume any previous knowledge with Flash or ActionScript, so if you are searching for the best place to start, look no further.