Spotlight customer reviews:
|
Customer Rating: 
Summary: most accessible overview/intro to AS3 available.
Comment: First off: if you havent written any code, ever, im pretty sure this book isnt for you.
If, however, youve written some AS2, or even AS3, and thrown up your hands in frustration, you've found the right title.
Before I read Learning AS3, I had read more complex books like Essential AS3 and AS3 Bible, and written some AS3 and some AS3/MXML and a bunch of procedural AS2 and AS1; not a novice. But the hard edges of the new version of the language were still unclear to me, as I'd read tons of theory and had less than enough practice.
This book is the one that combined these two areas oh so well. It takes the theoretical aspects of AS3 and applies them as no book I've read before does. And the authors explanation of what they are doing and WHY is way better than any flash book I've read since Foundation Flash 5 (published around 2000); There may be typos and code mistakes as mentioned in other reviews, but honestly that wasn't my takeaway from the book. Rather here's a book that gives you a much better understanding of the whys; a book that will help you build what you want to build as opposed to doing mindless tutorials; a really excellent book at getting you over the hump of AS3. Spend the money and read the book. Its the one i recommend to anyone at any level who asks; its that good.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent Starting Point for Migrating to ActionScript 3
Comment: 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.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Worth the price of admission.
Comment: 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.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Learning ActionScript 3.0: A Beginner's Guide
Comment: 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.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not for a beginner
Comment: 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.
|
|
|
