Essential ActionScript 3.0 (Essential)

Customer Reviews

Average Customer Review




Use "Programming ActionScript 3.0" instead, November 23, 2009
By M. Sandler (Santa Clara, CA)
As a fluent developer in C++ and Java, when I asked an informed friend for pointer on getting going with the 'world of flash stuffs,' he pointed me to this book. I feel that was in error. Instead, use the official guide "Programming ActionScript 3.0," which is a sizeable pdf freely downloadable from Adobe (google the phrase in quotes to get the link).

Moock's attempts to be 'tool independent' in his presentation, which creates pain for the learner, as it's generally unclear (till the very end) how to run any of the examples he seems to be so carefully building up. Given I respect the distinction between books for beginners vs. for experts, the reason I'm bothering to return to score this book poorly, is how Moock presents the content as if his exposition represents a good set of stepping stones for a beginner to walk up - which I strongly feel it is not. Conversely, "Programming ActionScript 3.0" is not only much better in how it steps into and through the content, but also much stronger in its coverage.


PS - even now, past the basics, between the two, I still always make "Programming ActionScript 3.0" where to look first for how to do anything, not "Essential ActionScript 3.0"







Essential is a Very Appropriate Title, November 16, 2009
By Wilson Gheur (San Francisco, CA)
No matter if you are new to actionscript 3.0 or a experienced developer - you have to have and read this book. It's simple like that. It is, as the title says, essential. For me, besides having access to great explanations about how actionscript works, which is something you will not find anywhere else, this book helped a lot to improve the way I was writing my code - and I am not a developer, just a nosy designer.



Good book, far from great, October 29, 2009
By Art (Fox Lake, IL, USA)
For starters, the book is definitely not geared for beginners. The author jumps into concepts that beginners won't understand. I've been programming for more than 10 years so I had no problems understanding the content... but be warned if this is your first programming book. Furthermore, he constantly tells the reader to "jump to chapter X" if you don't understand something. As a result, Moock totally failed at giving a start-to-finish explanation of programming (regardless of language).

I'd say that the first 1/3 of the book is pretty well done. The explanation of ActionScript's syntax is excellent. Moock has you building a "Virtual Zoo" application as you go through each chapter, adding new features to the application with each new concept...

...but then he abandons the whole "Virtual Zoo" application as you enter the second and third parts of the book. There is an appendix at the end of the book which offers the full application code, but it would have been awesome if Moock continued to illustrate how to use each concept in the context of building this application. Instead, he has about 1 1/2 pages telling you what he added, gives you the code, and expects you to figure out what the hell he did.

I'll be honest and say that I had to skim most of the second and third parts of the book. With no reference to the "Virtual Zoo" application and crappy, non-real-world examples the later chapters are pretty dry.

On a positive note, Moock does an excellent job explaining the details of each class he discusses. The definitions are clear. But because there's little reference to real-world application (again, in the later chapters) they're just hard to digest without slamming your head against a desk.

If the book weren't advertised as a beginner's book, I would have given it 3 stars. It's a nice reference book for ActionScript 3.0 -- but I've learned more in a few days of searching Google than I did from the final 2/3 of this book.



"The" Flash Resource for Programmers, October 28, 2009
By Christopher Songer
Chapter 29 was fundamental and contained the information I could not find described anywhere else.

If you are a programmer familiar with other languages, and you are accustomed to using the index of a manual to find out all the information that you need about a new language, then this is "the book" to use to start learn Flash; and Chapter 29 is the first and only Chapter to read straight through.

Why? Because if you are a programmer, you are going to find actionscript easy. There will be some things you need to know about the language; and the index of this book will lead you right to any such information. But the thing you are really going to want to know is how to get your actionscript to be run.

I looked "everywhere" for the information about how actionscript is bound to Flash and there were two problems in my way. First, Flash is targeted at designers more than programmers. Consequently, the focus of Flash "how-to" materials is on creative people trying to animate something. In these materials any use of actionscript is a distraction -- an incantation that is mentioned and glossed over rather than explained. Second, I could not find keywords to get the information on the web.

Chapter 29 fixed all that for me. It is a bottom's up explanation of Flash that talks about the Flash basic constructs and how actionscript is bound into these constructs.



excellent, October 3, 2009
By Rainbow Cemetery
it may be possible to learn actionscript with no previous knowledge using this book and for the dedicated individual i would encourage it. it's a much more complete explanation of how things actually work instead of just throwing code at you to copy. it'd take you a lot longer to get up and running than from a book strictly for beginners but at the end you'd be a lot better off. yeah the first chapter being about classes is a little heavy, but making your main class is the first thing you'd normally do. may as well get in the habit early.

i would say the audience that could get the most benefit from this are those who have a good understanding of some other language and would like to apply that to the particular syntax of actionscript. i learned to use as by reading through the language reference, and this book was helpful in filling in some gaps in my knowledge.