Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: An invaluable reference.
Comment: ESSENTIAL ACTIONSCRIPT 3.0 by Colin Moock is for advanced programming libraries and for ActionScript web developers who seek a detailed reference on the topic. ActionScript 3.0 is a major upgrade to Flash programming: it's faster and more sophisticated and requires a deeper level of understanding - offered up by ESSENTIAL ACTIONSCRIPT 3.0 alone, making for an invaluable reference.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Beginners: Do NOT Buy This Book!
Comment: I just received my copy of Essential ActionScript 3.0 by Colin Moock, and I am extremely disappointed. Not because the book has no value and will not be able to one day assist me as a Web Developer; I am disappointed because the book itself, (and amazingly, at least one reviewer on Amazon), claims that this book is suitable for readers that have "no prior programming knowledge" (1st page of the preface). That is the biggest marketing deception I have ever read in a computer book.
These are the topics discussed in Chapter 1 alone (after a 14 page preface that will leave you gasping for breath!): Runtime Environments, Compilation, Just-in-time Compilation, Classes, Objects, Packages, Access Control Modifiers for Classes, Constructor Methods, Variables and Values, Constructor Parameters and Arguments, Expressions, Instance Methods, Method Parameters and Arguments, Method Return Values, Method Signatures, Members and Properties.
And those are just *some* of the large bold sub headings in Chapter 1!
I repeat: THAT'S CHAPTER ONE ONLY. 43 pages of absolute gibberish if you are a beginner. Not to mention that the author is using ridiculously complex language. He tries to give the impression that he is properly explaining himself to new programmers, but he hasn't got a clue how to speak to beginners. For example, on page 9 he explains what the word "character" means (?). Everyone that has ever owned any device that has a keyboard knows what a "character" is! Yet on the same page, he uses the word "delimit" without a hint of an explanation. I know what delimit means; I've been coding websites for 7 years. But is he sure that a beginner knows?
While I did not yet officially read past the 1st chapter (I'm planning on reading ch.1 about 14 times before I move on!), I did flip through all 900 pages, trying to find something that I might actually be able to use in a Flash Application sometime soon. I didn't even come close to finding ANYTHING that wouldn't require hours and hours of study, practice, and debugging.
Here's another example of the book's off-the-wall structure: On page 579 he states that "ActionScript code cannot be included within an tag's HREF attribute". He's supposedly speaking to people with "no prior programming knowledge" and he waits almost 600 pages to tell us that? And yet chapter one discussed all the things I mentioned above?
An explanation for why the book does not speak well to beginners is implicitly provided in the preface -- the book was reviewed by a number of super-expert Flash architects and geniuses from within Adobe. We're talking about "Computer Scientists" and "Senior Engineers". How about getting someone with "no prior programming knowledge" to review it? I think that would have helped a lot.
And why on earth is the official Amazon title for this book "Essential ActionScript 3.0 ILLUSTRATED"? Illustrated? There are virtually NO ILLUSTRATIONS in this book! Virtually NO DIAGRAMS. Virtually NO SCREEN SHOTS of anything. It's just super-complex code.
I believe, as I said, that the mention *early on* that the book is good for beginners is nothing but a marketing ploy to pull in a few thousand extra books. I am writing this review in hopes of stopping beginners from wasting their money. If you want to learn some basic ActionScript that you can use *immediately*, buy "Sams Teach Yourself Flash MX ActionScript" by Gary Rosenzweig. He speaks to beginners and experienced programmers superbly (as do all of Sams authors). Even though Gary's book is slightly out of date, it's a much better investment if you are a beginner. Move to Colin Moock's much later, if ever, or else practice your ActionScript now and wait for the 4th edition.
Having said all of the above, I will add a positive paragraph about Colin Moock and this book:
Every experienced Flash developer and/or programmer should own a copy of this book or a previous version by Moock. Moock knows his stuff and has excellent attention to detail (unstructured though it is). This book is a raw ActionScript tome that will gradually turn an experienced coder into a superb ActionScript application developer.
To summarize: The book's marketing is deceptive; it's not for beginners, and even experienced developers will need to spend countless hours studying it to benefit from it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Essential Book
Comment: Now that Adobe has taken Flash actionscript development out of the dark ages into the 21st century we all need some careful explanation of the details of the new language. Moock has done that well with this new book (which is twice as large as his old book for AS2 of the same title). I highly recommend this book to fellow developers out there.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Thorough and Indespensible
Comment: This book covers everything in perfect detail and order. You will never get that feeling that you're missing something when reading this book, it is completely thorough. You will never see that line, "...but you don't need to know about that" in this book; you will get a proper explanation of everything. Don't get the idea that this book is boring or too detail-oriented - it is also perfectly suited for a quick reference, as the information is wonderfully organized. I am obviously a big fan.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Ultimate resource
Comment: If you have any concerns about how difficult will be to advance from AS 2.0 to AS 3.0, this book will get you to the right path. The well known AS expert Colin Moock write this book for everyone, either you are advanced user or beginner. Clear examples and explanations. I think that this book is ultimate resource for AS 3.0, much better that even original documentation.
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