Any good tutorials for beginners?

I am a beginner in programming, i learned pascal and java before but i cant even start actionscript.
Does any of you know some decent tutorials with pictures, maybe?
Also, how much time does it take to learn the language basics? Thanks!

[FAQ] Making Kongregate Games. READ FIRST!

But my problem is, i dont even understand the VERY basics. And i cant find no tutorial which describes it.
What are symbols? How to I bind actionscript to these symbols? What is the difference between movie and graphics?

The book Beginning Flash Game Programming for Dummies is really good.

Hi Balidani – I started out with Java too and then migrated over to flash. It took a while to pick it up properly – it works very differently – but once I got started it was fairly simple.

Symbols are just movieclips that are stored in the library – they allow you to re-use graphics in your game (in simple terms). You can put actionscript on the timeline within the symbol so that every time the frame with the actions in is reached, your actions will run.

If you have a Javascript knowledege, this will probably help you more with AS.

I would go with Smigbob on this one, i am actually reading that book right now as i am typing this. Its a very good and easy to understand book. You can get at a book store for around $25.

Too bad i only know java not javascript, but thanks for the information everyone!
I’m probably going to look for that book.