Customer Reviews

Flex™ 3: A Beginner's Guide

5 star:		(1)
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I've been mostly disappointed with this book. The book is titled "A Beginner's Guide" which seems to mean beginners who already know Java or some other object oriented programming language. I downloaded the source files given in the book, and many of them do not run as written. Some I've been able to fix, some not. Also, I wish the examples would be more integrated e.g. a simple application was built throughout the book. The last example I tried showed how to build a menu that doesn't do anything or relate to any other example in the book. Finally, I wish the examples focused more on why something is coded a certain way rather than just how to code it. [...]

I am an experienced PHP programmer and use object oriented programming methods. I found this book to be a quick read and gave me enough of the basics that I can build anything I need. I'm certainly not ready to do an entire web site using Flash Player, but this is nice for creating small components. I'm seriously thinking about creating some user forms with Flex so I don't get inconsistent user experience from one browswer to another. I use a lot of JavaScript, which makes Flex a good choice because ActionScript is so similar to JavaScript. This book must have been written with someone like me in mind, because I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I am not sure who this book is intended for, a beginner to Flex will not be able to learn Flex from this book. Maybe a manager can get some good overview but even that would be a lot of useless knowledge for a couple of keys features and abilities.

Save your money and find a different book that will teach you Flex.