For reasons unknown Adobe is hiding ActionScript 3 documentation. Do the following- go to your Flash CS3, Flex 2, or Flex 3 installations and search for *.pdf, *chm, or *.hlp files which describe the syntax or programming guides for ActionScript 3. Let me give you a clue – there is nothing! Talk about supplying OReilly, Wrox,Friends of Ed and other book sellers with Missing Manuals business. Yet if you go to the Flash Help file and click on the About ActionScript topic here is what Adobe says:
ActionScript includes a large library of built‑in classes that let you create objects to perform many useful tasks. For more information on ActionScript, see Programming ActionScript 3.0, Learning ActionScript 2.0 in Adobe Flash, or the ActionScript Language References.
So you would think by clicking on any one of these topics, you would be taken to the appropriate ActionScript 3 documentation. No such luck. So I tried the same LiveDocs page up at the www.adobe.com website (this should have the latest documentation including references to ActionScript 3)- still no luck. So I have had to go prospecting around Adobe and others websites to find some good ActionScript 3 documentation. Here is what I have found so far. My bias is towards documentation which you can download for offline work:
Adobe ActionScript 3 Programming Guide – PDF, LiveDocs
ActionScript 3.0 Language and Components Reference – LiveDocs only-major omission here
Using ActionScript 3 Components – LiveDocs and PDF
Now you would think the program and senior managers at Adobe would recognize that they are in a major skirmish over RIA and rich Web media content with both Microsoft with Silverlight and Sun with Java/JavaFX. They can hardly afford to be cavalier about getting out the critical supporting documentation to their designers and developers. You would think these references would ship with the not inexpensive Flash CS3 at least in electronic form. Then again, the software industry is littered with former leaders who dissipated and then lost their lead (and often businesses) with an arrogance and self-satisfaction that Adobe seems to be showing here.
