Customer Reviews

Foundation ActionScript for Flash MX

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

 

 

Have you ever taken a class from someone who clearly knew the subject forward and backward, but couldn't communicate it to you on your level? This book is a lot like that.

This book is frustrating, at least for a beginner. The authors make the mistake of assuming that writing in a "conversational" style and throwing analogies at you thick and fast are sufficient to instruct a non-programmer or beginner. Instead, they confuse you by "over-explaining" some straightforward ideas, and other times by using needlessly complex examples and exercises that incorporate advanced concepts before the learner is ready; then saying, in effect, "don't worry about that other stuff yet, we were just trying to show you "x". Well, why not come up with an example that just showed us "x" without all that other stuff? Or just give a concise explanation of it?

In my opinion both as an often "naive" learner and as a professional in the field of instructional design, I think the gold standard in teach-yourself computer texts for beginners are the Lynda Weinmann H.O.T. books. Alas, they don't have one for ActionScript.

This book is like many others written for those who don't already know Actionscipt--it starts out explaining concepts slowly and then takes giant leaps shortly afterwards. This wouldn't be so bad if I hadn't many wasted hours trying to get script to work only to find that I had stumbled upon yet another error not accounted for on the Friends of Ed errata page. I sent multiple e-mails, one which points out something I'm SURE is an error (and it took me a very long time trying to figure it out) and nothing was done. I had another problem with script I'd typed. I checked over and over to make sure I'd gotten the syntax correct, and I had. Then I cut and pasted the FOE coding that I'd downloaded, and guess what? It didn't work either! But when I looked at the rest of the .FLA I saw that the FOE people used different settings than they used in the book. Seems someone decided that some variables needed some tweaks but failed to put it either in the book or on the errata page. I even postponed reviewing this book so that I could give the FOE people a chance to rectify their goofs. But they didn't.

This book is chatty, but chatty doesn't equate to good instruction. If you want to learn Actionscript and know nothing about it or Javascript already, you're out of luck.

I believe that previous viewers might've written so positively because they didn't follow the book step-by-step as I did. If they had, they would've had problems, too. Either that or I have a different version of the book than they do.

This book is a solid starting point for people interested in making dynamic flash sites with actionscript. It's written in a casual tone, so it's not too dry. However, I do recommend some knowledge of object oriented programming (javascript) because the logic of writing actionscript will be foreign to people who are beginners or have only worked with HTML. However, the lessons are presented in an easy to understand way, with concepts that can be applicable to your own work. There are occasional lapses, such as the author's failure to explain just how a layer mask works, even though it is a necessary step in several lessons (I had to go to macromedia's site for a quick tutorial). Overall, as a relative novice, I have found it helpful and it will be useful as a reference tool after I have completed the lessons.

This is an excellent actionscript book for designers (beginners) who don't like geeky terminology. It leads the reader slowly and the layout is very organized. After you read this book, you'll surely become a well-rounded actionscripter. Compared to other books like Peachpit Actionscript, this book is much better.

Unfortunately Sham/Ben sometimes chit-chat a little too much before coming to the core-concept: actionscript. But the book gives enough background-information about what and how to get things done. I learned a lot of making a dynamic website by following the case-study.

There is a reason why this book is big. Too much time is spent to explain small things. A reader can easily get lost in the details or lose any interest. ActionScript is best taught by using the object-oriented programming paradigm. Little effort is done in this direction. The programming style is not poor, but not brilliant either. It is also a dull book, in spite of the imaginative chapter titles. With so many other better books in the market, only a naive reader would actually choose this one.

This is an excellent book if you want to learn action script and you have no programming background. It explains in a friendly and easy to understand way how to program in action script. It places the action script code in a real world context and builds from there. I actually enjoyed learning action script. I highly recommend this book!

i got the "Foundation of flash mx" like two months ago and i learned alot from it. Therefore i got Foundation Actionscript for flash mx. Unfortunately, this time i am totally disappointed. First of all, The contents are so unorganized. It doesn't provide the glossy of actionscript terms or something like that. The introduction is poor written. They could suddenly introduce to the reader so many new "actions" and "terms" at once, and they don't really explain them in detail. Newbies would get confused easily. The amount of tutorials are also reduced and most of them are 6-7 pages long. This book is not bad, but not a really good "introduction" book for Actionscript.

I was looking at the various Flash MX books and I noticed another reviewer gave this book one star. Wow. I'm totally surprised. I found this book very helpful. It thoroughly teaches the basics of actionscript programming but more than telling you "type this here" it explains exactly why you should type this or that here or there. This book gave me the building blocks I needed to understand actionscripting in Flash MX. I'd recommend it to anyone that is serious about actionscript. If you're looking to learn to make interactive flash sites this book is a must. if you're content with something less, perhaps you should look elsewhere or consider delving deeper into the many features actionscripting can offer to your flash projects.

This is an excellent actionscript book for designers (beginners) who don't like geeky terminology. It leads the reader slowly and the layout is very organized. After you read this book, you'll surely become a well-rounded actionscripter. Compared to other books like Peachpit Actionscript, this book is much better.