Customer Reviews

ActionScript for Flash MX: The Definitive Guide

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought Colin Moock's previous book (on flash 5) the day it was released because as an investor of many other sub-standard flash books, I knew the one from O'Reilly (the book's publisher) would be the most valuable. Without fail, "Actionscript: A Definitive Guide" blew me away. Not only was his book extremely informative, but his writing style was conversational, concise, and accessible. Though I had experience with actionscript, my background wasn't in programming, so it was nice to have an "in" to the advanced features of actionscript with Moock's example scripts and corresponding explanations. After a few months of employing the ideas and concepts found easily in Moock's first book...I felt like I finally had a firm grip on Flash 5...

Then Flash MX was released. Immediately I bought it and quickly transitioned myself into the new work enviornment (love it). Then I read up on all the new features...and thought to myself...I wish Colin would write a book for Flash MX's actionscript...it is way more powerful...and more complicated...

He did. It took longer than my patience would have liked...but the wait was well worth it...and the book explains its own delay...IT IS HUGE. Almost twice the size of the first edition...and that's because almost every chapter is edited, has new important explanations and the same easy-to-understand commentaries and examples. Indeed there are entirely NEW chapters...that specifically discuss new immensely more powerful Flash MX actionscript features. Also, all the appendices are new and updated (I frequently use them).

If you own Flash MX and you want to be a serious flash developer with serious marketable skills, BUY THIS BOOK above all--it is a REAL REFERENCE tool--something you will keep on your desk next to your mouse. Nothing is left out except some add-in features (like comm server and UI components) which you can get plenty of info on at macromedia's website. You can also frequent colin's website (moock.org) where he posts hundreds of additional tips, book errata info, and flash downloads.

I garentee "Actionscript for Flash MX" will become the best investment you made outside of the Flash MX application itself...at least until flash 7 is released! If you learn the concepts in this book, you will be able to create anything you or your client can imagine. In the end, that could mean lots of money or lots of fun...or both! Enjoy!

And by the way...buy it at Amazon...it's almost 20 bucks cheaper than the bookstores.

Excellent book for experienced programmers, but if you don't have any programming experience, this book will drive you away.
This book has a lot explanations on conceptually theories but very lack of hands on examples.
If you want to learn how to use Flash effectively and fast, this is not the book.
If you want to take it to the next step (which will be a tiny step compared to what flash can already do without action script), then this book is excellent as it teach a lot of the basic and has a lot of reference.

I am lucky I am an experienced programmer, so I give it 5/5, but if I am not an experienced programmer, I will give it 1/5 only.

Experiened programmer, I mean if you know any of the VB, C++, or Java.

This book claims to be "The Definitive Guide," but it contains not a single word about ActionScript to support Flash Remoting. For example, where's the discussion of NetServices.createGatewayConnection()? For help in writing ActionScript to interact with a database, you will have to consult another reference source.

The author has an annoying writing style in which he repeatedly refers to "we," as in: "When we export...a .swf file from a .fla file, we can incorporate...." Sometimes, though, he switches to "you," as in: "To append or insert script text instead of replacing it, you must manually copy and paste...." What we/you need here is a good edit.

Aside from the two criticisms addressed above, I'd rate this book as average in quality in completeness, clarity, and accuracy. Code samples work. The index is a bit thin. Some of the more complicated topics (e.g., "Move Clip Subclasses and Components") could have been enhanced through the use of additional examples.

As an O'Reilly book, this book is below average in quality.

I would just like to say, this book is great. I am almost brand new to Flash, and I'm fourteen. This book covers all aspects of Web design, including some implementation of basic HTML into Flash, communication with Server-side scripts, such as PHP or CGI, and the reference is awesome. It gives detailed examples of every function, and really helps if you want to get to know how to do something, fast. I have been recommending this book to a friend of mine, who is a more experienced programmer than me, and who recently bought Flash MX 2k4 Pro. I recommend it to you, to, if you are interested in programming Flash MX.

I've been using Flash now for about three years and have got more and more into the programming/development aspect. I'm an active part of the Flash communities and had heard a lot about Colin through the forums, which prompted me to buy his book. I consider it a must for anyone who is serious about developing applications within the Flash environment from the very beginner to expert. His style of writing makes it easy to quickly get to grips with even the most complicated areas of actionscript 1. I always keep the book within arms length of my computer as the thorough language reference section regularly provides me with not just ways of doing things, but explains best practices and why.
I have bought quite a few instructional books particularly relating to Flash and this is the best by a mile, it makes the price tag seem very good value indeed.

I'm a beginner at Flash and ActionScript but this book has been really helpfull. It helps a lot if you have previous programming back up.

This book is a very good resource for actionscripting. However, this book is not for beginners. The first few pages of the first chapter talks about keyframes, movieclips, trace command, and other things without fully explaining it. I highly recommend another book for absolute beginners, but I also highly recommend this book to intermediate and advanced users.

I've bought quite a lot of books, some better than others, this one has it's position right next to my work computer. I cannot remember everything, and this book provides an excellent source of reference, as even now although I've read it many times and understand the concepts, the finer points sometimes need completion. This reference section covers just about everything. - I'd give it a "must have".

It's incredible to think of the work that went into making this book. I really enjoy the examples given with nearly every entry in the reference section.

I think that Colin's extensive research uncovered attributes of ActionScript that weren't previously considered by the designers, giving the language more power.

I would probably only plead for more client-server integration discussion, but understand that it was covered briefly, is not fully within the scope of the book and would consume a lot of space.

As an experienced programmer, I love to see a lot of coding examples besides the language reference. This book spends some time explaining concepts of programming in general and object oriented programming. Then the author describes actionscript in a halting pattern with a few lines to explain.

To reiterate, this is not a "bad" book. Its going to be on my shelf as a language reference but I have to search for another book that provides some extensive examples.

Anjan