Customer Reviews

Beginning Adobe AIR: Building Applications for the Adobe Integrated Runtime (Wrox Beginning Guides)

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

 

 

It's solid. It has a "cookbook" feel to it, which I like. What I mean by that is that the book dishes out info in a succinct way and covers pretty much what you'd like to know when building an app. Things like, prepping the xml description file, accessing the local file system, connecting to remote data, interacting with the OS. Good stuff.

I don't like how short it is, about 300 pages. The text is big, has lots of pictures (this is good but it inflates the page count), and a few tables that I thought were unnecessary.

If you are competent in Actionscript, but don't know much about AIR, this is great. I'm an advanced ActionScripter, so this book really just fills in a few holes I had about AIR, and will serve as a good reference when I need to be reminded how to say, move a directory on the users computer or how to set the window chrome of an application.

You're wandering through the desert for hours on end when someone appears wanting to to sell you a cold bottle of beer. You're thirsty and would pay just about anything. You pay the price and then discover it isn't cold and it isn't beer and it doesn't quench your thirst. You've been had. Buy Beginning Adobe AIR and you may feel like this.

I bought a copy here on Amazon. There are just not many books on AIR just yet, so I thought I'd give it a try. This one was obviously rushed to press. The publisher and editor should be embarrassed by their lack of oversight. This greatly diminishes WROX standards of quality. There are many places where the author copied and pasted whole sections, changing a key word here but forgetting to make a change there. Really stupid and unprofessional. What is presented in so many chapters and through repetition could be concisely written in just a few chapters.

But is the information ultimately useful? Well, maybe to a few readers. In my opinion a few hours spent working through some of the sample applications on the AIR website might serve you far better than this title. Also, keep a watch for other titles that will surely appear on this exciting technology. I just can't recommend this volume ... unless you are really, really thirsty.

If you are thinking about buying this book, better save your money for something better and read some tutorials online. The book is absolutely bloated with repetitive and unnecessary screen captures, poorly written and lacks any true content. In overall is not even worth the trees that died for it. Bad, bad, bad.

I've never been too fond of the Wrox books but am happy to note that this was an excellent starter book for AIR. I decided to roll the dice on it (based on poor experiences with other Wrox titles) because of the author (a noted Flex/AIR guru), whose blog I've read. Well, Rich Tretola (the author, that is!) did not disappoint. The book is concise and packed with good informaiton on AIR and the new APIs you'll want to use/learn. Speaking of the APIs, all code/examples in the book are useful and focused.

If you are looking to get started with AIR, this is an excellent book for you.

I consider myself a pretty advanced developer and very resourceful in finding needed code samples online or in previous projects. Yet, AIR brings so many new capabilities to ActionScript that I am still very dependent on having the material in hand and ready to reference.

Rich's book follows a long line of incredible code samples on his blog (http://blog.everythingflex.com). The samples featured in the book are simple and go right after the fundamental abilities of AIR.

His chapter on working with SQLite in AIR is priceless and I've referenced it time and time again as I integrate database functionality into my Flex for AIR apps. I love the simplicity with which Rich teaches unique desktop integration features that AIR supports.

Don't let the title mislead you. While this book is targeted for 'beginners', it will become one of your most valuable AIR references, no matter what level developer you are.

While I appreciate the AIR v1.0 has only just been released, this book was far too light on - I didn't really gain anything that I had already learnt from Adobe's quickstart and sample apps. It's a pity because there is a heap more stuff in AIR that just a little extra insight could have really added a lot of value to this book.

If you're looking for a big 'Hello World' book using Flex then this is the book for you. The publisher has done a great job in mentioning all of the relevant technologies without saying the book is targetted towards Flex developers.