Rating: 
Summary: A Big Book!
Review: Over 1,000 pages for less than $20. I like it. This book has just about everything I need for cranking with ActionScript 2.0. The first 200 pages are brand new materials written by a number of Flash hotshots, and the remaining 800 pages are the printed docs that Flash MX 2004 provides on PDF files.I for one am not about to burn up half of a $70 toner cartridge to print out all of the docs on the PDF files, and then put close to 1,000 pages into a half dozen loose leaf binders and consider myself ahead of the game. So, I like the dictionary nice and printed out with an index and good table of contents. Don't expect to get something other than what's on the PDF files in the last 800 pages of this book other than the index and TOC. So now for the new stuff that makes up the first 200 pages of the book. This new part consists of "Articles" by different Flash folks you've probably heard of before. Actually, they're more like chapters, but I'll not quibble about them being one or the other. They are very helpful. The first article is a straight forward one about transitioning from ActionScirpt 1.0 to ActionScript 2.0. It's complete with lots of examples, with just about every new feature in AS 2.0 (PrintJob, LoadMovieClip, NetStream, NetConnection and lots more). Each of these has an explanation and example that works, including using classes. (Goodby _prototype!) The remaining articles cover topics like writing code with style, object oriented programming using Flash MX 2004(OOP), hybrid documents (working with Flash and HTML, XML, JavaScript, data binding, etc.), HTML text file enhancements (like adding graphics to Flash text fields) and winding up with a good article about Rich Internet Application development. Now all of this is new stuff, and for me, it was worth the price of the book. This big fat tome will no doubt receive my multiple stick-em tags, and I've put it to good use. It's a look-up book and read-what-you-need book, and it's dirt cheap! I've learned a lot already, and that's all I care about. My advise is to look at this book in a book store. I think if you see it, you'll see why it's well worth it.
Rating: 
Summary: More than a reference guide
Review: Really nicely priced, for being a 1000 pages tome, this book is definitively more than merely the printed version of the Macromedia "ActionScript Reference Guide" documentation that ships with Flash MX 2004 or Flash MX Professional 2004, and that is, for the sake of truth, freely available from the Macromedia website as PDF file too. In fact, in addition to the ActionScript reference, this book contains six extra and very helpful chapters that, alone, well worth the cover price. Complete with code samples, these additional chapters discuss topics such as coding best practice, OOP, Design Patterns and many others, which all come in handy when converting from ActionScript 1 to ActionScript 2.
Rating:
Summary: Worth the Weight.
Review: The minute Flash MX Pro 2004 was released, I began looking for reference books that would cover ActionScript 2.0. It's unusual to find a book that covers new software immediately after its release. That's why I was surprised to see that Macromedia Press had already released ActionScript 2.0 Dictionary. The equivalent of an unabridged English-language dictionary for ActionScript programmers, this book covers virtually everything you'll need to know about the language, including informative articles on not only how to use AS, but how the dramatic changes in the language and the structure of components will change the way you work. If you need an all-encompassing desk reference for ActionScript (and if you're serious about Flash, you do) you need the ActionScript 2.0 Dictionary. It is an essential part of my technical library. Learning the ins and outs of AS 2.0 is a daunting task without documentation. This is the book that should come with every copy of Flash MX 2004 Professional. Check it out.
Rating: 
Summary: Lots of room for improvement
Review: This tome is basically two books mashed together. The first being a set of Flash articles while the second is THE actual Actionscript 2.0 dictionary. While seemingly through, when you actually need to use it the index will fail you and you will need to look either at the dictionary table of contents (starting on page 411) or thumb through the second half of the book. Note: You won't find much information on any of the various components that come with Flash. This is a purely Actionscript 2.0 dictionary. Another area that is missing is any details concerning the professional features of Flash MX 2004 like slides and forms. The two good things about this book are that it is relatively inexpensive and there are numerous examples.
Rating:
Summary: Worth the cheap price
Review: While most of this book is the same material that comes with Flash in the help panel, there are also several articles in the beginning of the book. Of these articles, there were a couple that were REALLY good, changing the way I think about programming in Flash. A few of the other articles however seemed to be of less quality and not well thought out. Either way for the things I learned, it was certainly worth the cost.
| 
