ActionScript 3.0 Programming: Overview, Getting Started, and Examples of New Concepts is a 76-page document designed to introduce those familiar with general programming principles to ActionScript 3.0. ActionScript 3.0 compiles and runs much faster than preceding versions, and the reasons have much to do with the structural changes Adobe has added: You truly do need to use ActionScript differently than you have previously, if you’re already an ActionScript programmer. If you’re new to ActionScript, but are looking at it from a Java or C++ or C# perspective, you may be intrigued at how different ActionScript is now compared with what you’d known it or heard it to be before.

This document employs reusable code examples to demonstrate the basic functionality of ActionScript 3.0 in the following topic areas: Packages and Classes; Display Programming; Movie Clips and Buttons; and Basic Structures. A concluding section helps those unfamiliar with OOP (Object Oriented Programming) and Design Patterns get acquainted with these concepts, as a knowledge of them will greatly benefit anyone getting into ActionScript 3.0 who wants to get the most out of it.