Lingo Sorcery: The Magic of Lists, Objects and Intelligent Agents [Paperback]

Peter Small (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 047196302X | ISBN-13: 978-0471963028 | Publication Date: August 1996 | Edition: 1

Lingo Sorcery is the book that can give you an important programming edge. With this book you will find out how to: manipulate list structures, create intelligent objects, build helper objects, build objects which build other objects, design intuitive navigators with memories, create advisors, build information organisers, design interrogators which find out what a client needs, assemble information on the fly, create objects which learn from experience and build servants which anticipate user requirements. Moving beyond the syntax of this deceptively simple language to the conceptual framework of object-oriented programming, the author leads you towards thinking in Lingo, thus giving your imagination powerful vehicle for producing truly creative multimedia product.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Most books on Lingo, the scripting language in Macromedia Director, focus on syntax and guide you through basic tasks using that syntax. This book is different. The author, Peter Small, explains the concepts of object-oriented programming so that you can better take advantage of Lingo's built-in flexibility. You learn how to understand and create linear and property lists, simple and complex objects, messages and menus, and movies within a window. Small assumes that readers are already fairly familiar with Lingo and that they are ready to learn much more about object-oriented programming techniques. Lingo Sorcery covers Director 5 for Macintosh and Windows.

Review

"...Plenty of good advice is dispensed on techniques for using objects and lists to best effect. At this price the book is value for money...", , , Computer Bulletin, November 1999 # --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 478 pages
• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons; 1 edition (August 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 047196302X
• ISBN-13: 978-0471963028
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,767,137 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Are you ripe for hype???????, August 4, 2000

By 

Eddo Stern (Carmen San Diego) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lingo Sorcery: The Magic of Lists, Objects and Intelligent Agents, 2nd Edition (Paperback)

Well this book is useless for any practicing or aspiring lingo programmer, the obscure approach to coding OO lingo has absolutelty no realworld use value. The book offers %95 blabber on the virtues of OOP without one bit of useful code. The author may be a good cheerleader for something he heard on TV, but how he was allowed to publish this book is a complete mystery to me.(Well, thats not exactly true: the title was good, the timing was right, and the economy was booming) This book was written by a fan for fans. So if you need a motivational speaker to convince you that OOP is a good thing, buy this book, read it, recycle it and then buy Bruce Epstein excellent "Lingo in a Nutshell" and write some nice ojects in Director.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Over priced and incomplete., July 6, 2000

By 

Tim A. Setliff - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lingo Sorcery: The Magic of Lists, Objects and Intelligent Agents, 2nd Edition (Paperback)

I have mixed feelings about this book. I purchased it thinking that I was going to be able to greatly increase my programming skills and understanding of OOP. This book contains very good ideas and will increase your understanding of OOP. Many of the scripts just don't work. Maybe this is due to the fact that the book was apparently written for Director 4 and 5. That is all that I see referenced. It would be great if Mr. Small would update the book because it can have great value. His web site contains some dot syntax examples from the book that actually work.

If you purchase the book, you will increase your understanding of lingo and you will increase your frustration level trying to make the scripts work.

For the price, it should have a companion cd.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Super Great Ideas but unfortunately presented clumsily, October 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Lingo Sorcery: The Magic of Lists, Objects and Intelligent Agents, 2nd Edition (Paperback)

This Book is virtually a gem. The Ideas in this book have completely changed my way of thinking OOP wise.Also it opened my mind to totally new paths regarding the use of Lingo.

However, I could have saved a lot of time reading and understanding that book ,if the author had paid more attention to the way he presented his Ideas to the readers. It took me more patience than intelligence to keep up with the authors trail of thoughts. He many times switched from an Idea to another without any prior warning then jump back to the original Idea the same way he left off. Also it took me hours to fill up the gaps the author had left in his illustrative projects including codes,sprites or castmembers that I had to figure out on my awn. So I ask the author kindly to eliminate these major sorts of distractions to make his readers more focused on the Ideas of the book ,rather than what went wrong or what is missing , if he is planning on writing any other books on lingo.

But regardless of all the above, in the meantime, this book is one of a kind comparing to other books on lingo and I can confidently say that it's a must for every lingo enthusiast.