# Suggestions for learning AS3?

**URL:** https://forum.kirupa.com/t/suggestions-for-learning-as3/257475
**Category:** flash
**Created:** [April 14, 2008, 4:34pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/suggestions-for-learning-as3/257475 "2008-04-14T16:34:34Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Ashground](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/779978/32.png) [@Ashground](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/Ashground)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2008, 4:34pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/suggestions-for-learning-as3/257475/1 "2008-04-14T16:34:34Z")

</div>

I’ve found myself in a strange situation. I have a background in programming – mostly Python and PHP – as well as motion graphics (After Effects). I’ve always passionately disliked Flash, but now that I’ve had a chance to see AS3 in action I’ve decided to give it a go. The problem I’m facing is that I really don’t want to learn Flash itself – I’d much rather ignore the GUI altogether and code everything from scratch in AS3, leaving Flash to act more like a AS3 compiler than an IDE. I’ve seen lots of people take a similar route. I’ve been playing with Flex a bit, as this seems to be closer to what I want from Flash, but learning AS3 has proven to be a much bigger task than I thought it would be.

Every book I pick up either assumes that I want to learn the Flash interface and develop within Flash itself, or assumes that I already know AS2 and just points out the differences in the new language. I don’t know AS2, I don’t know the package names, and I don’t really know how the internals of AS work. I don’t want to have to import stuff to the Library, or bind AS to keyframes, or anything like that. I just want to code.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how I should proceed? Are there any books out there geared towards a non-GUI approach to Flash development?

Thanks,  
Aaron