I just finished reading Adobe Integrated Runtime for JavaScript Developers and would recommend it to anyone wanting to get a better grasp on Adobe AIR, including what its purpose is, and some background on its creation. The book also outlines what is currently supported in the Beta 1 release and what will be coming along in the 1.0 release. Adobe Integrated Runtime for JavaScript Developers can be downloaded here and purchased through amazon here.

The first chapter outlines some basics about AIR and explains some of the reasons why AIR was created.

Chapter 2 explains how to get up and running with the AIR SDK including installation instructions, AIR application packaging and deployment information and also instructions for building your first HTML/JavaScript based AIR application. (Please note that using the SDK to develop AIR apps is a little different than using Flex Builder 3 but there are still enough parallels to make this a great read for Flex centric developers.)

Chapter 3 details WebKit, JavaScript use within AIR, and how to setup and use AIRAliases.js to access the AIR API from JavaScript. (Pretty cool stuff, accessing the Flash APIs from JS.)

Chapter 4 lists AIR/HTML/JavaScript code examples with explanations for 10 areas of AIR functionality.

I think the book is easy to grasp because it does use HTML/JavaScript. Because those language are second nature to a lot of developers that part of the code in the examples doesn’t distract from AIR specific information being presented.

One thing also mentioned is Aptana. You can use it to develop AIR/HTML/JavaScript applications. Check it out here: http://www.aptana.com/

Adobe Integrated Runtime for JavaScript Developers was written by: Mike Chambers, Daniel Dura and Kevin Hoyt.