While not all our paths to learning ActionScript 3.0 are the same, the resources that are provided to us are.   Some like taking that direct dive into it and learn from their mistakes.  Others would prefer to learn through someone else’s following.  I have compiled a list of the 10 books that may possibly help you learn and/or expand your knowledge of  ActionScript 3.0.

Learning ActionScript 3.0: A Beginner’s Guide

Written for those of you new to ActionScript 3.0, the book describes how ActionScript and Flash work, giving you a clear look into essential topics such as logic, event handling, displaying content, migrating legacy projects to ActionScript 3.0, classes, and much more. You will learn important techniques through hands-on exercises, and then build on those skills as chapters progress.

Essential ActionScript 3.0

ActionScript 3.0 is a huge upgrade to Flash’s programming language. The enhancements to ActionScript’s performance, feature set, ease of use, cleanliness, and sophistication are considerable. Essential ActionScript 3.0 focuses on the core language and object-oriented programming, along with the Flash Player API. Essential ActionScript has become the #1 resource for the Flash and ActionScript development community, and the reason is the author, Colin Moock.

Object-Oriented ActionScript 3.0

Object-oriented programming (OOP) is something that is usually considered a black art for hardcore programmers, not a topic of conversation for Flash developers. However, when adobe introduced ActionScript 3.0 to the mix, it changed everything. ActionScript 3.0 is much more powerful than previous versions, allowing Flash developers to produce robust object-oriented applications.

ActionScript 3.0 Design Patterns: Object Oriented Programming Techniques

Now that ActionScript is reengineered from top to bottom as a true object-oriented programming (OOP) language, reusable design patterns are an ideal way to solve common problems in Flash and Flex applications. If you’re an experienced Flash or Flex developer ready to tackle sophisticated programming techniques with ActionScript 3.0, this hands-on introduction to design patterns is the book you need.

The ActionScript 3.0 Quick Reference Guide

This guide is designed specifically to help Flash designers and developers make the leap from ActionScript 2.0 to the new object-oriented ActionScript 3.0 quickly and painlessly. Formatted so you can find any topic easily.  ActionScript 3.0 Quick Reference Guide explains: Object-oriented programming (OOP) concepts, such as packages and classes ActionScript 3.0 features and player enhancements that improve performance.  Workflow differences between ActionScript 2.0 and ActionScript 3.0 including tools, code editing, component sets,etc.

ActionScript 3.0 Bible

ActionScript has matured into a full-fledged, object-oriented programming language for creating cutting-edge Web applications, and this comprehensive book is just what you need to succeed.  If you want to addinteractivity to Flash, build Flex applications, or work with animation — it’s all here, and more. Packed with clear instruction, step-by-step tutorials, and advanced techniques, this book is your go-to guide to unlock the power of this amazing language. Learn the basics, apply object-oriented programming, and more.

The ActionScript 3.0 Migration Guide: Making the Move from ActionScript 2.0

In this essential and timely guide, ActionScript expert Kris Hadlock speaks squarely to the many thousands of ActionScript 2.0 users who need to make the leap right away. The ActionScript Migration Guide covers all of the major changes in ActionScript from version 2 to 3. The book explains the most important and fundamental changes in ActionScript drawing comparisons between the two languages both visually and contextually.

Foundation ActionScript 3.0 with Flash CS3 and Flex

This book covers all the essential techniques from the ground up, allowing you to get up and running quickly and easily. Starting with the fundamentals, youll learn about using ActionScript objects, manipulating sound and video, and harnessing the power of regular expressions and XML.  The book concludes with two case studies to consolidate what you’ve learned and to introduce some more advanced techniques.

ActionScript 3.0 Cookbook

Each code recipe presents the Problem, Solution, and Discussion of how you can use it in other ways or personalize it for your own needs, and why it works. You can quickly locate the recipe that most closely matches your situation and get the solution without reading the whole book to understand the underlying code.  Solutions progress from short recipes for small problems to more complex scripts for thornier riddles, and the discussions offer a deeper analysis for resolving similar issues in the future.

Foundation Actionscript 3.0 Animation: Making Things Move!

The material inside this book covers everything you need to know to harness the power of ActionScript 3.0. First, all the basics of script-based animation and setting up an ActionScript 3.0 project are covered. An introduction to object-oriented programming follows, with the new syntax, events, and rendering techniques of ActionScript 3.0 explained, giving you the confidence to use the language, whether starting from scratch or moving up from ActionScript 2.0.

The site we all know and love, Flash and Math, has just released a new book called
Flash and Math Applets: Learn by Example.  The book is filled with rich examples and offer the credibility to back them up.

Product Description:

The book illustrates the progression of ideas and techniques that will take a Flash developer from novice to pro with ActionScript 3 programming.  The book is unique in its approach of emphasizing the “timeline programming techniques” that have made Flash development accessible over the years.  Flash and Math also offers a step-by-step path to learning essential AS3 programming that is based on these popular tutorials.

Product Description:

This book makes advanced Flex 3 concepts and techniques easy. Ajax, RIA, Web 2.0, mashups, mobile, the most sophisticated Web tools and the coolest interactive Web applications are all covered with practical, visually-oriented recipes.

In this book, you’ll learn how to:

• Integrate Flex 3 with PHP, Java, JavaScript, and Ruby on Rails.
• Tune the performance of your Flex applications.
• Create mashups and collaborative applications using Flex 3.

The Adobe AIR Bible promises to be a well rounded book on the topic of developing AIR using Flash, Flex, and JavaScript. 

Product Description

Adobe AIR is a revolutionary technology that blurs the line between the desktop and the web. The AIR Bible will get developers up and running building simple AIR application, then take them through all aspects of the new API. The authors have a wealth of experience in building Rich Internet Applications using Flex, Flash, HTML, and Ajax. They will bring their experience to the table walking the reader through application programming topics and demystifying the techniques developers use to build the kind of complex application that readers are sure to want to build with this exciting new technology.

The folks at Sitepoint and 99Designs are making a free book available for download if you act fast. For a limited time, you can download The Photoshop Anthology: 101 Web Design Tips, Tricks & Techniques, a full version book aimed at helping web designers. Head on over and download it while it lasts. The book is packed full of techniques and best practices to help aid you in achieving web-design-nirvana.

Hurry, at the time of this post, the offer was to expire within 7 days.  Enjoy the free e-book.

The Photoshop Anthology: 101 Web Design Tips, Tricks & Techniques is the ultimate Photoshop compendium for web designers.

Thibault Imbert has released his book Pratique d’ ActionScript 3 for free. Over 1100 pages of pratical ActionScript 3.0 and 21 chapters of content that covers almost every aspect of practical AS3 programming, from What’s ActionScript 3.0 to Final Application.

This is a great free ebook available for all French users, however, an English version is not available at the moment. Sorry, English users hopefully one will be up soon!

You can find more information at the dedicated website of Pratique d’ ActionScript 3.

Source: dev.papervision.org