A.3 ECMA-262 Resources

A.3 ECMA-262 Resources

Because ActionScript and JavaScript are both based on the ECMA-262 scripting language specification, they share a common core syntax. Hence, although the following resources do not focus specifically on ActionScript, they are worthwhile reading for ActionScript programmers:

ECMA-262 Language Specification

http://www.ecma.ch/ecma1/STAND/ECMA-262.HTM

The official ECMA-262 language specification from ECMA, the body that maintains the language upon which ActionScript is based. Netscape's JavaScript and Microsoft's Jscript are two other implementations of ECMA-262. This is a highly technical document used to create things such as a conforming ECMA interpreter.

Netscape's Core JavaScript Guide

http://developer.netscape.com/docs/manuals/js/core/jsguide/contents.htm

Netscape provides very readable documentation on JavaScript in this detailed explanation of JavaScript's core language features.

A.4 Object-Oriented Programming

Netscape's Details of the Object Model

http://developer.netscape.com/docs/manuals/js/ core /jsguide/obj2.htm

An article explaining the prototype-based implementation of OOP, inheritance, and classes in JavaScript. Concepts are illustrated with numerous code samples. Netscape makes a special effort to explain JavaScript's OOP in terms that C and Java coders will understand.

Sun's Object-Oriented Programming Concepts (from The Java Tutorial)

http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/java/concepts

Although intended as a primer for aspiring Java programmers, this site covers the basics of OOP in generalized terms and makes good background reading for OOP in any language.

A.5 SWF File Format

Whereas the Flash Player is not open sourced, the .swf file format itself is publicly available (which is one reason it has garnered a lot of third-party support). For further information, here are some resources:

Macromedia Flash file format (SWF)

http://www.macromedia.com/software/flash/open/licensing/fileformat

Here you can obtain the SWF SDK from Macromedia, "a set of tools for developers to write Macromedia Flash (SWF) files, documentation of the Macromedia Flash file format (SWF), and code to write SWF files."

OpenSWF

http://www.openswf.org

A general information center for developers of SWF implementations . Includes tutorials, message boards , resources, and source code.

Ming

http://ming. sourceforge .net

An open source C library for generating SWF format movies, plus a set of wrappers for using the library in C++ and popular scripting languages such as PHP, Python, and Ruby. See http://www.opensource.org for information on open source software.

Perl :: Flash

http://www.2shortplanks.com/flash

A Perl library to allow the "dynamic, programmable generation of Flash/SWF movies." Created by Simon Wistow.

A.6 Character Encoding and Unicode

Unicode Character Ranges and the Unicode Fonts that Support Them

http://www.alanwood.net/unicode/fontsbyrange.html

An excellent place to find a font capable of displaying a particular range of Unicode characters .

Unicode and Multilingual Support in HTML, Fonts, Web Browsers and Other Applications

http://www.alanwood.net/unicode

Great information about using Unicode on the Web.

A Brief Introduction to Code Pages and Unicode

http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/library/codepages.html

An informative but digestible overview of the evolution of character encoding.

A tutorial on character code issues

http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/chars.html

A highly informative collection of articles on the basics of character representation in computers. By Jukka Korpela.