Flash 8 ActionScript Bible :: Education by Design Store

Customer Reviews

Practical, Powerful and Complete Book

2008-04-25
This is a very easy-reading book (Not that easy-reading, of course, as everybody would expect from a computer language book, but you know what I mean). It is not dull to remember you that you should be familiar with the Flash 8 environment before buying this book.
The first part of the book, the Getting Started, has many useful details. Maybe there are more details than the needed at the beginnig. But, when you are starting to miss the practical issues, the book gives you simple exercises that became more complex in a nice way. And you realize that the details were just there because the authors don't want to save words on good explanations and examples.
In the second part, "Using Core Classes", the authors start to complement the contents of the different chapters, what means that they did a lot of work of re-writing and polishing prior to publishing. Also, after each exercise, there is a description telling you why you wrote that specific code. This is an achievement not always found in other books of this kind.
Not all the contents were crystal clear for me and there are more errata than I'd like, but they are not big problems actually.
The book is organized very well, from easy to hard, always remembering the previous issues. I have reached part three: "Working with Display Objects". I am enthusiastic.
In short, it is a great book, very powerful and useful if your aim is to learn ActionScript 2.0. I am enjoying each page, and it is very hard for me not to keep on reading and practicing with this nice guide. BUY IT

Excellent Book

2008-03-11
Recently I had to do a project for work involving ActionScript 2.0.
I have a technical background and am quite knowledgeable in a multitude of programming languages and programming paradigms. This book got me to where I needed to be fast. I cannot say enough good things about it and the author. Well done!

It's certainly a learning experience/challenge

2008-01-08
I've just opened the book for the first time to try to get a handle on XML and ActionScript by coding the examples on page 698. The comments attached to the code don't tell the real story of what is actually returned from the XML object/variables (my own trace commands displaying what each variable contained were more accurate) and there are a number of coding errors that I had to work out myself. It taught me something, sure, but I shouldn't have to be correcting the code along the way. It wasted time I didn't have.

Excelent resource

2007-09-20
The book covers all of the bases. buttons, interactivity, sound and websites, more importantly, it is easy to comprehend and get the gist of actionscript 2 which will make it easier to pick up actionscript 3.

Good for begginers

2007-08-24
If you don't know anything of Action, I recommend this book. Who knows a little bit, half of the book is great for you. That's it.

Great resource for the intended audience

2007-05-08
To create Flash applications that sizzle, you have to learn the code. In this comprehensive guide to the latest version of ActionScript, the object-oriented scripting language for Macromedia Flash, you'll get the detailed instruction and step-by-step tutorials you need to write robust code and create sophisticated interactive animations. Work with objects and components, interoperate with JavaScript, create games, and more - it's all here in this informative book for developers, programmers, and designers.

Inside, you'll find complete coverage of Flash 8 ActionScript Master the basics of ActionScript expressions, functions, and variables Work with numbers, arrays, and strings Transform your movie clips with colors and filters Program sound and manage video Manage data with Web Services and Flash Remoting Call ActionScript functions from JavaScript Learn scripting for the Flash stand-alone player

Bonus Companion Web site!

Find code downloads and example files at: www.wiley.com/go/actionscriptbible

*Snore* 2007-03-24
What a horrible introduction to such a great programming language. I lost all motivation to learn anything about ActionScript after trying to stay awake for a couple of hours. Not good for those using Flash for artistic purposes. Maybe good for programmers who just need a reference. I've had good teachers, and bad teachers. This one puts you in a coma due to a lack any type of human emotion or social skills. If you have spent your life in front of a computer, not communicating with anyone other than your 10th level paladin/wizard and his cohort of wood nymphs, this book is for you!

Perfect 2007-03-01
If you are familiar with flash and/or programming at all then this book is for you. Together with the online Flash documentation from Adobe's website, I can find out how to do anything I want to. The book gives great examples of everything that it discusses. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to make killer Flash content.

It's true that it requires a little bit of programming background to understand what this book is saying sometimes but let me emphasize that it takes minimal experience.

Good if you know what your doing 2007-02-07
If your looking for answers on action script and how to easily implement it to flash this is not the book for you. This book gives a good explanation of coding and goes through all forms and ways of coding. I have only made it partially through the book but until i get much further i feel i will just stay confused.

Geek squad alert 2007-01-12
Not a book to use if you are casually familiar with Action Scripting, or have only used Action Script in 5 or MX. Almost all examples are functions or object oriented programming, without a layman's definition of what either is. Good reference if you know of a human being or online chat that can explain things to you. Once I become more expert at scripting, this will probably be a good reference book, but by that time we'll have Flash 9 or 10, and all will be moot.

Good reference/learning tool if you lock yourself away in a remote cabin and eat sleep and breath Flash for 4 days.