Colin Moock has always been the man, but this book is his zenith. It is great. I'm on page 205 and he's making event listeners meaningful to me.
There are lots of books that turn us into monkeys, doing what they tell us. They prove we can copy what we see, and still be without a clue. Colin could include exercises, but short of that, there is nothing he could do to improve the book. I've seen more subjects clarified after years of practice than at any other time from any other techincal book.
This is my forth book on ActinScript 3.0, including the ActionScript 3.0 Cookbook. I wasn't a bit wiser after trying with that last one, but after reading this book I'm prepared to go back and try the recipies again.
The big problem with other books on Flash is that they bring us close but leave us in the lurch. That is the last thing to expect from Colin Moock, and you won't get it from Colin in this book.
Colin's previous books were head and shoulders above other ActionScript books, but 2.0 was a bit dicy with his leap into abstract concepts at the start. In this book he begins with a practical example and he doesn't keep sending us to later chapters to understand concepts used in early chapters. Further, his initial practical example is simple and easy to grasp, unlike his examples in 2.0. Guess he learns from his mistakes.
This is a must buy for any one serious about learning ActionScript and keeping up with the technology.
"This book is so good and so needed for Flash CS3 and Flex Builder - Adobe should consider including a half-price discount voucher on the book when people register their products."
--Jacques Surveyer, The Open Sourcery
