The Adobe® ActionScript™ Virtual Machine 2, or AVM2 for short, was designed to execute programs written in the ActionScript 3.0 language. ActionScript 3.0 is based on ECMAScript, the international standardized programming language for scripting. ActionScript 3.0 is compliant with the ECMAScript Language Specification, Third Edition (ECMA-262). It also contains functionality based on ongoing work on ECMAScript Edition 4, occurring within the Ecma International standards body. This document describes the operation of the AVM2 and defines the file formats, data structures, and instruction formats used by the AVM2.

The AVM2 was designed to support the ActionScript (AS) 3.0 language, and for the remaining chapters it is assumed that the reader is aware of the terminology and concepts of the language. The following vocabulary and associated definitions are taken from the ActionScript 3.0 Language Specification and are presented only as a review of the material. For full details, refer to the language specification.

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