What's the best way of learning Flash, Actionscript 3 and Adobe AIR?

Question

I'm a Java/C++ programmer by trade and I'm looking to expand my horizons in terms of computer languages in order to make myself more employable.

Flash, Actionscript 3 and Adobe AIR seem like they are useful things to learn and I was wondering what would be the easiest way of getting an introduction to them?

Do I need to get hold of a standalone IDE or can I use my IDE's of choice (Intellij and VS 2010)?

Even though the output is platform agnostic, is there one OS that's preferable to develop these on - I generally use Windows for development although I also have Mac and Linux boxes.

Is there a standardised documentation system (akin to Javadocs) or is it less structured than that?

Answer 1

I'm also learning Flash I'm very beginner. What I find difficult is the Flash IDE which is targeted towards Graphics Designer not the Developer. The Flash IDE is very primitive. So better start with another IDE like Flash Develop or Flex Builder under Eclipse. Personally I found a Plugin Ametyst for Visual Studio but didn't really get started yet.

Answer 2

This question has already been asked and you should easily find some previous answers here...

In the meantime: Check Colin Moock's set of videos, he does a very good job at introducing AS3 http://www.adobe.com/devnet/actionscript/articles/lost_as_weekend.html

As for the choice of IDE ,there's a wide range out there , depending on what you need for comfort. FlashDevelop , FDT & FlashBuilder are pretty good contenders but you should be able to use your IDE of choice too.

For the docs , have a look at http://help.adobe.com/en_US/AS3LCR/Flash_10.0/

On a different note, with your background you may find Haxe interesting: http://haxe.org/

Answer 3

Hi,

the new FlexBuilder is the best IDE (you can also build UI visually), FlashDevelop is free but less powerfull.

For learning resources see http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/tourdeflex.html where you can find many examples (updated day by day), and http://www.adobe.com/devnet.html the development network.

Personally I like very much http://tv.adobe.com/

Answer 4

FDT/FlexBuilder/IntelliJ are all good IDE's. I favor FDT, because you really pump out classes at amazing rates. Based on your skillset as said you should pick up AS3 fairly quick. AS3 has some problems though, so you really need to be on your toes to keep the performance good ( you should always remove event listeners and that kinda stuff ). There are a ton of blogs you could start reading:

• http://johnlindquist.com/ ( Good tutorials about IDE's, Signals (EventDispatcher))
• http://blog.joa-ebert.com/ ( General Blog about performance and a rebuild Flash player )
• http://gskinner.com/blog/ ( General Blog about flash )
• http://joelhooks.com/ ( Blog about Robotlegs )
• http://flashblog.robertpenner.com/ ( Blog about Signals )

There are a few frameworks/librares of intrest:

• Gaia (framework for building websites, features scafolding, seo, transitions, etc)
• Robotlegs ( framework for building websites/games, features dependancy injection, mvcs architecture)
• TweenLite ( library for tweening )
• Signals ( library for replacing the default events and clearing them up more effeciently )
• Temple ( library for native event destruction, debugging, forms, utilities, etc )

Answer 5

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Lee Brimlows http://www.gotoandlearn.com/ good videos ranging from beginner to advance.