Lingo Sorcery: The Magic of Lists, Objects and Intelligent Agents, 2nd Edition [Paperback]

Peter Small (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0471986151 | ISBN-13: 978-0471986157 | Publication Date: January 7, 1999 | Edition: 2

Have you wanted to acquire that essential programming edge which will allow you to harness the full power of lists and objects? Are you looking to create innovative Director products for the Internet at the highest level of technical expertise? Have you reached that stage of using Lingo where the only next step you can take is to finally understand object-oriented programming?

If you have said "yes" to any of the above, you have the right book in your hands. It is the first choice of both professionals and learners alike and is the most frequently recommended book on the Director User Internet forums for understanding the black art of OOPS and taking Lingo programming to areas the manuals never reach.

THis second edition covers two major advances in Director which have opened up new vistas to users. Behaviours are easy to conceptualize, and allow those who have very little programming knowledge to design an object-orientated programming (OOP) style. The new Application programming Interface (API) introduced along with a set of Net Xtras has transormed Director from aclosed application into an open system, allowing it to become the new killer app for thr Internet and the Web.

What readers said about the first edition...

? ...for my money it's the best Director book in the market.

? Lingo Sorcery is amazing. It's not a "how to" book per se, (though it has lots of how to in it) it's a "how to" book with a lot of accompanying thoughts on how most effectively to think about OOP and multimedia design from an organic point of view.

? In my opinion, Lingo Sorcery is easily the best info on OOP for Lingo.

? I am finally starting to get the hang of OOPing, but I heard Peter's book is awesome.

? See some crazy (but interesting) examples of ways to use OOP with Lingo, read Lingo Sorcery by Peter Small. It's amazing. It will really get your creative juices flowing.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Lingo Sorcery exhibits extreme clarity and patience in showing its readers how to become true Lingo programmers, rather than just graphic artists who know how to use Lingo in order to get the effects they want. What's more, Lingo Sorcery uses Lingo as a springboard into object-oriented programming (OOP) concepts.

Peter Small shows how to work with objects (particularly lists) and offers a lot of help in conceptualizing what they are and what they can do. He goes into considerable detail about Lingo's messaging model--the means by which Lingo objects communicate with one another--and explains the powerful object-user interface, including Lingo's ability to alter user-interface elements on the fly.

After explaining Lingo OOP with a carefully arranged series of segments, Small shows how the concepts he's taught can be applied to specific Lingo objects in specific situations. He shows how to implement an advice-dispensing animated help character by working magic with a movie in a window (MIAW) object, for example.

Small has added coverage of behaviors and of the expandable API, including the Net Xtras, while maintaining the tutorial content that proved popular in the first edition of this book. He does not touch upon the changes to Lingo made in Director 7, however. --David Wall

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 #

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 590 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 2 edition (January 7, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471986151
• ISBN-13: 978-0471986157
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.5 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,332,422 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.