Errata

ActionScript: The Definitive Guide

Errata for ActionScript: The Definitive Guide

Submit your own errata for this product.

The errata list is a list of errors and their corrections that were found after the product was released. If the error was corrected in a later version or reprint the date of the correction will be displayed in the column titled "Date Corrected".

The following errata were submitted by our customers and approved as valid errors by the author or editor.

Color key: Serious technical mistake Minor technical mistake Language or formatting error Typo Question Note Update

Version Location Description Submitted By Date submitted Date corrected
Printed
Page 34
Code example under "Testing Our Quiz" heading

A semicolon has been added after the gotoAndStop ("init") statement.
The code now reads:

on (release) {
gotoAndStop ("init");
}

Anonymous    Jul 01, 2001
Printed
Page 45
First paragraph (after the tip)

The last sentence of the paragraph, "Here's the code:" has been removed.

Anonymous    Jul 01, 2001
Printed
Page 80
Comment about 3/4 of the way down the page

The comment used to read:

// Sets the finalGreeting to "Hello, Karsten?"

It has been changed to read:

// Sets the finalGreeting to "Hello Karsten?"

Anonymous    Jul 01, 2001
Printed
Page 87
Middle of the page;

In the example code, the word "Pain" has been changed to start with a lowercase "p" rather than a capital "P". The code now reads:

paradox = "pain is pleasure, pleasure is pain";

Anonymous    Jul 01, 2001
Printed
Page 102
first code sample

In the code sample that calculates the volume of a cylinder, the variable
"circleArea" is defined on line 3, but the variable "area" was subsequently
used on line 4. line 4's variable "area" was changed to "circleArea",
so it reads:

var cylinderVolume = circleArea * height;

Anonymous    Aug 01, 2001
Printed
Page 108
Last paragraph; The text used to read

"If the divisor is zero, the result is NaN."

It has been changed to:

"If the divisor is zero, the result is Infinity."

Anonymous    Jul 01, 2001
Printed
Page 108
last paragraph

"If the divisor is zero, the result is NaN" is incorrect.

It isn't feasible to make the full correction for this in a reprint. The full
correction is as follows:

If the divisor (denominator) is zero:
The result is NaN if the numerator is zero or non-numeric
The result is Infinity if the numerator is a positive number
The result is -Infinity if the numerator is a negative number

Some examples:
trace (0/0); // NaN
trace ("a"/0); // NaN
trace (1/0); // Infinity
trace (-1/0); // -Infinity

Note that if the numerator is Infinity:

The result is NaN if the divisor is Infinity, -Infinity, or non-numeric
The result is Infinity if the divisor is zero or a non-infinite positive
number
The result is -Infinity if the divisor is a negative, non-infinite number

Some examples:
trace(Infinity/Infinity); // NaN
trace(Infinity/-Infinity); // NaN
trace(Infinity/"a"); // NaN
trace(Infinity/0); // Infinity
trace(Infinity/1); // Infinity
trace(Infinity/1000); // Infinity
trace(Infinity/-1); // -Infinity
trace(-Infinity/2); // -Infinity
trace(-Infinity/-2); // Infinity

Note finally that any non-infinite number divided by Infinity is 0
trace (0/Infinity); // 0
trace (1/Infinity); // 0
trace (-1000/Infinity); // 0

Anonymous   
Printed
Page 109
first code sample on page

In the code sample that checks for a zero divisor, line 3 is missing curly braces
around the else statement. Line 3 should read:
} else {

Anonymous   
Printed
Page 127
second code sample

In the second code sample on the page, the diameter variable is incorrectly set to
ball.radius instead of ball.radius * 2. Line 1 of the code should read:
diameter = ball.radius * 2;

Anonymous   
Printed
Page 137
second code sample on page

In the second code sample on the page, the value of Math.PI is missing a "1". Line 3
of the code should read:
trace("pi is: " + PI); // Displays: 3.14159... (PI is a property of Math)

Anonymous   
Printed
Page 171
Last paragraph before "Exiting and Returning Values from Functions"

The second-last sentence used to read:

"by invoking our generic movieClip() function"

It has been changed to read:

"by invoking our generic moveClip() function"

Anonymous    Jul 01, 2001
Printed
Page 177
first code example

In the first code example, the word "function" was missing a "c". Line 2 of
the example now reads:

function getName() {

Anonymous    Aug 01, 2001
Printed
Page 188
Middle of example in middle of page

In the makeClip function example, the code used to read:

theClip.duplicateMovieClip(the clip._name...)

It has been changed to read:

theClip.duplicateMovieClip(theClip._name...)

Anonymous    Jul 01, 2001
Printed
Page 215
First paragraph; The last line

"Unlike the keyPress button event, keyDownclip events occur when any
key--not just a specific key--is pressed."

has been changed to:

"Unlike the keyPress button event, keyDown clip events occur when any
key--not just the specific key--is pressed."

The words "keyPress" and "keyDown" are italicized. The word "clip"
is not italicized.

Anonymous    Jul 01, 2001
Printed
Page 235
Fourth sentence in second paragraph

The sentence used to read: "Like the letters in the alphabet or the amino acid
sequences in a strand of DNA..."

It now reads: "Like the letters in the alphabet or the sequence of
base-pairs in a strand of DNA..."

Anonymous    Aug 01, 2001
Printed
Page 297
Footnote to Figure 13-4

The word "no" at the end of the first line of the footnote should be "not"
(the "t" is missing).

Thus, the footnote should read "...contains clips not based..." instead
of "...contains clips NO based..."

Anonymous   
Printed
Page 323
Example 13-5

The #include cannot have a comment on the same line. The line:

#include "questionsArray.as" // See explanation later in this example

has been broken into two lines, as follows:

// See explanation later in this example
#include "questionsArray.as"

Anonymous    Jul 01, 2001
Printed
Page 373
tip text

The MIME type in the tip text (marked by an owl graphic), is incorrectly listed as:
"application/x-www-urlform-encoded". The correct MIME type is: "application/x-www-
form-urlencoded" (as specified by the W3C). This error also appears under
loadVariables() (p.489), XML.contentType() (p.610), and XML.send() (p.626).

Anonymous   
Printed
Page 463
Last code example


"exec", "C:/WINDOWS/NOTEPAD.EXE")

has been changed to:

fscommand("exec", "C:/WINDOWS/NOTEPAD.EXE");

Anonymous    Jul 01, 2001
Printed
Page 476
last example before See Also for "#include"

In the example for #include showing syntax differences between Macintosh
and Windows file paths, the example for Macintosh used a slash character
("/") to delimit folders:
#include "Mac HD/Desktop folder/working/myScript.as"

It was changed so that a colon (":") is used instead. It now reads:
#include "Mac HD:Desktop folder:working:myScript.as"

Anonymous    Aug 01, 2001
Printed
Page 522
frameNumber argument for MovieClip.gotoAndPlay()

When passed a below-range frame number, the MovieClip.gotoAndPlay() method actually
behaves differently than the global gotoAndPlay() function. The second line of the
frameNumber argument for MovieClip.gotoAndPlay() should, hence, be replaced with:
"If frameNumber is less than 1, the call to MovieClip.gotoAndPlay() is ignored. If
frameNumber is greater than the number of frames in mc's timeline, the playhead is
sent to the last frame. Note that this behavior differs from the global version of
gotoAndPlay(), where a value less than 1 is treated as 1."

Anonymous   
Printed
Page 523
frameNumber argument for MovieClip.gotoAndStop()

When passed a below-range frame number, the MovieClip.gotoAndStop() method actually
behaves differently than the global gotoAndStop() function. The second line of the
frameNumber argument for MovieClip.gotoAndStop() should, hence, be replaced with:

"If frameNumber is less than 1, the call to MovieClip.gotoAndStop() is ignored. If
frameNumber is greater than the number of frames in mc's timeline, the playhead is
sent to the last frame. Note that this behavior differs from the global version of
gotoAndStop(), where a value less than 1 is treated as 1."

Anonymous   
Printed
Page 524
Usage paragraph; The last sentence used to read

"when a clip is called."

It has been changed to read:

"when a clip is scaled."

Anonymous    Jul 01, 2001
Printed
Page 530
Third paragraph

The second sentence used to read:

Main movies do support...

It has been changed to read:

Main movies don't support...

Anonymous    Jul 01, 2001
Printed
Page 548
Under "See Also" under "Number.MIN_VALUE Property"

"See Also: Number.MX_VALUE"

has been changed to read:

"See Also: Number.MAX_VALUE"

Anonymous    Jul 01, 2001
Printed
Page 556
Second and third lines of Description under "play() Global function"

There wass a bad break of parentheses following the word "play" at the end of
the second line of the descrition.

It looked like this:

....bears the play(
) function invocation...

It has been changed to look like this:

....bears the play()
function invocation...

Anonymous    Jul 01, 2001
Printed
Page 605
End of first paragraph

On page 605, the word "indexes" after the colon at the end of the first
paragraph was deleted.

Anonymous    Jul 01, 2001