Preface

I’ve been using ECMAScript-based languages for about 15 years. In fact, the first programming language I ever learned, ActionScript, was based on ECMAScript. I kind of fell into programming, but I’m so glad that I did. Originally I wanted to be a graphic designer. I was always drawing, and by middle school, I was making complex drawings pixel by pixel using Microsoft Paint. In high school, I took a class on interactive multimedia, and was introduced to Adobe Photoshop and Macromedia Flash. Once I discovered the power of Photoshop, I never wanted to go back and draw pixel by pixel ever again. With Flash, I could take it even further: no longer confined to creating still images, I could create rich animations.

This was the time of eBaum’s World and Newgrounds—websites that showcased the communities’ Flash games. I would visit these sites and wonder how these games were created. I tried to teach myself ActionScript (Flash’s internal language) purely by experimentation, but it wasn’t until I bought my first programming book that I really learned. After that, I was hooked. Being able to add interaction was a whole new dimension over creating animations, just as creating animations was a whole new dimension over creating still images. But this was just the start of my journey.