This week I have been trawling the big old World Wide Web for usable ActionScript that will play a significant role for the innovative features of my major project. My knowledge of ActionScript is at present basic. However, since my background with computing is programming, I can break-down coding, understand what is happening and what makes what work, and finally, adapt the coding to suit my needs.

The above textbooks are ones which I have purchased within the last year or so, most recently PHP and MySQL Web Development. Originally, I started learning ASP half-way through my placement year, but never actually got putting what I had learned into "live" practice - overworked the usual!

I'm not going to write a synopsis on each book, sorry folks! I don't mean to sound big headed or whatever, but if I thought the above books were crap, I would never have bought them. I can honestly say that SAMS Teach Yourself range of books are excellent for explanations on everything you need to know to get you started. As for ActionScripting in Flash MX and the PHP book, they are pretty hefty reading (millions of pages!), but it will get you through what you need to know for most of your programming needs.

Book list:

+ SAMS Teach Yourself Active Server Pages 3.0 in 21 Days
+ SAMS Teach Yourself E-Commerce Programming with ASP in 21 Days
+ ActionScripting in Flash MX, Phillip Kerman
+ PHP and MySQL Web Development (3rd Edition), Luke Welling and Laura Thomson

I am currently working on some prototypes for my main project home page which does involve advanced ActionScripting. I aim to have these online by the end of Week 3. Once I have this done, it should become a lot clearer as to what I aim to produce for my final piece and I can go ahead and complete my updated project timeline. Depending on the outcome, I may need to work "arse about face!"