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Learning ActionScript 3.0: A Beginner's Guide
List price: $39.99
Sale price: $23.99
You save: $16 (40%)
Author(s): Rich Shupe, Zevan Rosser
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 006.696
EAN: 9780596527877
Edition: 1st
Format(s): Illustrated
ISBN: 059652787X
Label: O'Reilly/Adobe Developer Library
List Price: $39.99
Manufacturer: O'Reilly/Adobe Developer Library
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 382
Package Dimensions:
Height: 1"
Width: 8"
Length: 1"
Weight: 1.95 lbs.
Product Group: Book
Address: 2008-01-04
Publisher: O'Reilly/Adobe Developer Library
Release Date: 2008-01-04
Studio: O'Reilly/Adobe Developer Library
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com:
Product Description
In this book, authors Rich Shupe and Zevan Rosser share the knowledge they've gained from their years as multimedia developers/designers and teachers. Learning ActionScript 3.0 gives you a solid foundation in the language of Flash and demonstrates how you can use it for practical, everyday projects. The authors do more than just give you a collection of sample scripts. Written for those of you new to ActionScript 3.0, the book describes how ActionScript and Flash work, giving you a clear look into essential topics such as logic, event handling, displaying content, migrating legacy projects to ActionScript 3.0, classes, and much more. You will learn important techniques through hands-on exercises, and then build on those skills as chapters progress. ActionScript 3.0 represents a significant change for many Flash users, and a steeper learning curve for the uninitiated. This book will help guide you through a variety of scripting scenarios. Rather than relying heavily on prior knowledge of object-oriented programming (OOP), topics are explained in focused examples that originate in the timeline, with optional companion classes for those already comfortable with their use. As chapters progress, the book introduces more and more OOP techniques, allowing you to choose which scripting approach you prefer. Learning ActionScript 3.0 reveals: New ways to harness the power and performance of AS3 Common mistakes that people make with the language Essential coverage of text, sound, video, XML, drawing with code, and more Migration issues from AS1 and AS2 to AS3 Simultaneous development of procedural and object-oriented techniques Tips that go beyond simple script collections, including how toapproach a project and which resources can help you along the way The companion web site contains material for all the exercises in the book, as well as short quizzes to make sure you're up to speed with key concepts. ActionScript 3.0 is a different animal from previous versions, and Learning ActionScript 3.0 teaches everything that web designers, GUI-based Flash developers, and those new to ActionScript need to start using the language.
Praise
"The best ActionScript book ever written."
-Lee Brimelow, Creator of The Flash Blog
Customer Reviews Average rating - 4.0
Rating - 5 Date: 2008-08-18
Content: EXCELLENT BOOK.
If your new to actionscript 3 or just new to actionscript period , this book will help you catch up with it. You will feel confident as you go through the book and practice examples.
What I really liked is that while the book is showing you how to code with actionscript 3, the examples will even apply to actionscript 2 or 1 ( with different coding of course, but the principle idea is great)
I would really recommend you pick up this book.
Summary: Awesome Book to Learn From
Rating - 5 Date: 2008-08-03
Content: I first became interested Learning ActionScript 3 after initially reading a few samples posted on Adobe's website. What I found was an excellent starting point that drove me to finally make the jump from ActionScript 1 and 2. In practice, most books I have read about ActionScript 3 focus on the Flex platform, which is outside of what I'm looking for. Rather, I needed something that focused on developing in the Flash IDE (Flash CS3 as of this review), which is exactly what this book is written for.
I picked it up as supplement material to aid me in programming a large game programming project. Basically, I've referenced this book to understand the key concepts needed for my game, borrowing code samples where needed and applying them to my own project. In practice, it's the application here that really teaches the concept, and I've found that this book is a great starting point as well as reference for grasping these concepts.
The authors have done a great job presenting the material in an easily-readable casual conversation style. Of these discussions, I particularly found their comparisons to the previous versions of the language most satisfying. As AS3 is very different from AS1/2, I appreciate learning what was changed and why.
I can not vouch for the beginner's guide level for this book. I came into this book as an intermediate ActionScript programmer and often found myself skimming over any discussion on the details of some of the programs. For the most part, the code is easy enough to read and get the point, and if I had questions, these were almost always addressed in the discussion. That said, I think this book is ideal for any intermediate programmer looking to make the jump to AS3.
I am aware that there are some errata in this book, and to that extent, I can simply comment that the website is well maintained, code samples there seem accurate. No problems here.
All in all, I would highly recommend Learning ActionScript 3 as a great companion book for anyone looking to get started programming with ActionScript 3.
Summary: Excellent Starting Point for Migrating to ActionScript 3
Rating - 4 Date: 2008-08-02
Content: If you're new to programming in general, as another reviewer said, "Look elsewhere."
But if you've got a little knowledge of javascript, C++, or even FORTRAN (yikes!), feel free to grab this book and jump in.
I'm in agreement with Lou Costello, regarding the drawbacks of this book. However, there are a lot of good things, too, like great examples and, as noted, the companion website.
If you can get around a pageful of code fairly well, are geek enough to enjoy debugging a few minor typos in the text, and if you're a fairly speedy typist, BUY THIS BOOK! Sit down with it and hammer out a few programs. The code examples are short and clearly demonstrate the concepts being discussed. And they will provide a TON of great ideas for your own projects. If you don't want to type the code examples yourself, download them from the website.
"A Beginner's Guide"? Naw, not really for beginning programmers.
A worthwhile purchase for anyone undaunted by code? Definitely YES.
Summary: Worth the price of admission.
Rating - 3 Date: 2008-08-01
Content: A "beginner's guide" will disappoint you if you are completely new to learning ActionScript 3.0. I am sure it is a great book, but not enough for a beginner to grasp the fundamentals. Too sad I read this confession only after I was going through the first chapter.
Summary: Learning ActionScript 3.0: A Beginner's Guide
Rating - 1 Date: 2008-07-30
Content: I'm a beginner to Flash but not to scripting, programming and graphical applications in general. If you're looking for a true beginners book skip this one. The book states right on the cover that its aimed at "those new to ActionScript, visual learners" Well I've programmed in many languages, and am fluent in all kinds of applications and this book is definitely NOT targeted at a non-programmer or a beginner.
The book immediately jumps to jargon frequently asking the reader to ignore the jargon as it will be explained later. For example the initial chapters are laced with descriptions of "class" but the actual discussion of class does not occur until chapter six. That's a long time to go trying to read pages of class discussion with no clear definition.
The book states clearly that it is not a reference. This means it can avoid creating a strong set of appendices or a good glossary. Don't know a term (which if you're new you won't), don't turn to this book to fill it in. Want a list of possible commands - look elsewhere.
The book claims to be for "visual learners" yet most of the examples do virtually nothing visually. Instead the example are a bunch of esoteric theoretical examples meant to give you the "philosophy" about using a particular command or structure, instead of a commonplace example. When the commonplace examples are given, frequently they're at the end of the chapter and not described - instead "by now you should be able to understand how this code works."
The book does not strongly tie ActionScript to the flash timeline (this will get me flamed). Sure they state often that you now can tie your actions to objects, but if you're a beginner then you need to describe how.
The book is on its first printing and is filled with errors and typos. Luckily I have a background in working with edge programs and first printings always come with this burden. Here the burden is deadly to the beginner who can easily spend hours trying to figure out whats going wrong only to learn it was a typo.
Now all that said, this is a good book. The authors are trying. I think the real problem is the authors are use to teaching this subject in person to a class, using the book as a class guide. With an instructor available the book could be used. However without an instructor present, this is a terrible uphill battle.
Summary: Not for a beginner
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