Essential ActionScript 3 is a great book. It covers similar material to Essential ActionScript 2, but the author has done a great job fine tuning the coverage of the subject with the new AS3 version. The book gives a clear explanation of AS3 in a format someone with a coding background can relate too. With this book, the free Flex compiler, and an image editor, a person is ready to start working with Flash/Flex, with or without the Adobe/OSFlash tools. It will not be as helpful to someone without a solid coding background that was looking for a more visual explanation of the subject matter. Since the previous AS2 book, Mr. Moock has focused and refined the message in his excellent ActionScipt reference and tutorial. This book helps explain the dramatic advances in the ActionScript language. ActionScript is no longer a toy language in any fashion.
The book excels at the nuts and bolts of the ActionScript 3 programming language and syntax. It does the best job explaining all of this that I have seen. It is definitely more clear to a newcomer to AS3 than Adobe's Online Documentation. The most useful part of the book was the clear explanation of the Display API. The online documentation of this is decent, but inadequate to easily learn the Display API if you are a novice. The information on the Display API is worth the price of admission alone. It has a great intro to the Event process. This is the best explanation I have seen of the Event process, it just makes sense after reading this book, from mouse/keyboard interactivity to program generated events, to I/O events. The explanation of the basics of Bitmap and Vector graphics is well done. It is not all you need to know, but it teaches you enough to get you started on the right path. Also, each of the footprint tips in the book is a little gem.
Seeing as AS3 is a major revision to AS2, if not a new language with an old name, you need to forget alot of the old syntax from AS2. Likewise, if all you have seen is AS2 and dynamic languages such as Perl/Python/PHP etc, all the new static and variable terminology is cumbersome at first ( perhaps it is obvious to someone familliar with Java).
All the basic syntax are explained cleanly: objects, functions, syntax, the scrapping old _root and _level syntax, differences between static and dynamic typing, etc.. I found the explanations crystal clear. After reading this book, the pros and cons and uses of the static and dynamic objects will be clear. This was particularly tricky to follow in the Online docs.
The cons are understandable shortcomings to keep the book under a thousand pages. It doesn't cover the environmental details in any depth, be it the Flash tool, the Flex tool, the Flex compiler or other open source toolkits. This is also a feature, since it is tool agnostic. Like the other books by Mr. Moock, it doesn't cover the audio and visual end of ActionScripting in a great deal of depth. It would be nice to see more coverage in this area, but then again, the book would bulge way beyond a thousand pages. The biggest criticism is the explanation of sound is lacking, and IMO the book would be improved significantly with a good section on sound. It's not really covered, and there is not alot of easily found reference material on sound online.
Unlike older versions of Flash, it is difficult to use AS3 without seeing the big picture. It doesn't lend itself to learning a little at a time from scratch like older versions of AS. This book is a great primary reference and textbook for the ActionScript side of the Flash/Flex world. It is a buffet of useful factoids and tips on ActionScript 3! Using Google, the Adobe online docs and this book will be a solid foundation for learning ActionScript 3. It goes without saying that Adobe has been making huge advances with the entire Flex/Flash stack, and that it is well worth learning more about.
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