User Guide

12 About This Manual
Using this manual
This manual is divided into the following parts:
The manual contains numerous sample files for important or commonly used classes to
demonstrate application programming concepts for those APIs. Sample files are packaged in
ways to make them easier to load and use with Adobe® Flex™ Builder 2 and may include
wrapper files. However, the core sample code is pure ActionScript 3.0 that you can use in
whichever development environment you prefer.
ActionScript 3.0 can be written and compiled a number of ways, including:
■ Using the Adobe Flex Builder 2 development environment
■ Using any text editor and a command-line compiler, such as the one provided with Flex
Builder 2
■ Using the Adobe® Flash® CS3 authoring tool from Adobe
For more information about ActionScript development environments, see Chapter 1,
“Introduction to ActionScript 3.0.”
Part Description
Part 1, “Overview of ActionScript
Programming”
Discusses core ActionScript 3.0 concepts,
including language syntax, statements and
operators, the ECMAScript edition 4 draft
language specification, object-oriented
ActionScript programming, and the new
approach to managing display objects on the
Adobe
® Flash® Player 9 display list.
Part 2, “Core ActionScript 3.0 Data Types
and Classes”
Describes top-level data types in ActionScript
3.0 that are also part of the ECMAScript draft
specification.
Part 3, “Flash Player APIs” Describes important features that are
implemented in packages and classes specific to
Adobe Flash Player 9, including event handling,
networking and communications, file input and
output, the external interface, the application
security model, and more.