xvi | Preface
and OOP. (Working out how to convert the Java examples to ActionScript 3.0 will
teach you a lot about ActionScript 3.0 as well—however, before tackling the Java
translations, be sure to go over the design pattern examples in this book.)
If you don’t have a good ActionScript 3.0 book yet, get one. We can recommend
ActionScript 3.0 Cookbookby Joey Lott, Darron Schall, and Keith Peters (O’Reilly,
- andEssential ActionScript 3.0by Colin Moock (O’Reilly, 2007). For a very
brief introduction to ActionScript 3.0, take a look at the Short Cut publication,
ActionScript 3.0 Programming: Overview, Getting Started, and Examples of New Con-
ceptsby Bill Sanders (O’Reilly, 2007). Also, you’ll want an ActionScript 3.0 book on
object-oriented programming. We’ve included an introduction to OOP in Chapter 1
that will suffice for now, and both the Moock and Lott books have some great OOP
materials as well. However, a book dedicated to OOP concepts should be part of
your library if you plan to write programs on the level of design patterns.
Conventions Used in This Book
The following typographical conventions are used in this book:
Plain text
Indicates menu titles, menu options, menu buttons, and keyboard accelerators
(such as Alt and Ctrl).Bold
Indicates text that should be entered by the user.
Italic
Indicates new terms, URLs, email addresses, filenames, file extensions, path-
names, directories, and Unix utilities.Constant width
Indicates commands, options, switches, variables, attributes, keys, functions,
types, classes, namespaces, methods, modules, properties, parameters, values,
objects, events, event handlers, XML tags, HTML tags, or the output from
commands.Constant width bold
Shows commands that should be typed literally by the user.
Constant width italic
Shows text that should be replaced with user-supplied values.
This icon signifies a tip, suggestion, or general note.This icon indicates a warning or caution.