Customer Reviews

Macromedia Flash MX 2004 ActionScript: Training from the Source

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

For years I labored to teach myself scripting of various kinds. As resources in that endeavor, the O'Reilly books were impenetrably dense and the "Dummies" books were so slight that I didn't feel like I was learning anything I could build on.

Then Flash came along, and in a couple of years Actionscript was added. I felt my way through some simple scripts, but still I couldn't cross the threshold into scripting anything particularly useful.

With this book, Derek Franklin and Jobe Makar have launched me across that threshold by helping me to learn Actionscript AND to understand it. By the time I had reached page 116 in this 764 page (the Target Paths chapter) I had already learned more about scripting from these pages than I had EVER learned from all the other books I've read on similar subjects.

I imagine that the only training sources better than this $45 book are the online courses which can run into the hundreds of dollars per course. As a layperson, if you want to learn Actionscript you would be well-advised to spend time and money on this book.

I really enjoyed reading this book and following its tutorials. Being a programmer with strong OOP background for more than ten years, I found the book very helpful in learning Flash MX 2004 actionscripting. It covers many important features of ActionScript 2.0 and shows how to apply those features to projects, including some techniques on testing/debugging your scripts. The tutorials are kept simple but interestingly enough to demonstrate the relevance to real-life projects. The text is written in plain english, allowing even non-native readers (such as me) to follow the text.

However, there are some downsides of this book (you can't have everything in a single book ;) ) that prevented me from giving this book a five star rating:

- the book basically is way too much focused on the procedural approach of actionscripting. Due to the very simple nature of the tutorials included in this book, it is fine to put functions here and there. Real-life projects however tend to become much more complex, and I doubt that reyling on functions (most of them put in a single frame) will do the job very well. So I had expected the second half of this book (after introducing OOP) to arrange the scripted functions into classes and showing how to employ OOP to keep your projects maintainable. Just calling methods on classes from within functions isn't very OOP-like.

- the new UI components of Flash MX 2004 are covered not very well. There's just one chapter dedicated to UI components and those are used only sporadically throughout the book. In particular, I missed tutorials on how to create UI components and a chapter on how to subclass UI components that come with Flash MX 2004.

Besides that, the book is worth the read if you are a ActionScript beginner (such as I am) and will definitely get you on the road to becoming an ActionScript expert. If you are already familiar with ActionScript 1.x then this book may contain not enough new "food" for you, so you better stick with the documentation provided by Macromedia. Knowledge of programming concepts certainly makies it easier to follow and understand the samples in this book. If you are totally new to (OOP) programming, you should read a good (OOP) programming book first before taking this course in ActionScript 2.0.

I'm a professional graphics programmer, most recently via Java applets. I tried to learn Flash 5, and dropped it because I couldn't see doing real simulators with it. But with MX 2004 and ActionScript 2.0, the programming model is finally to the point where I can get all the power of Flash animation and vector art, small downloads and excellent browser support & deployability, without sacrificing object-oriented programmability, plus gain outstanding server-side integration capabilities. Still, I was finding it a really steep climb up the learning curve with Flash MX 2004. I'm not the only one - I've spoken to other Java & OO programmers who despaired of the paradigm shift to Flash. But then I got this book. Now it all makes sense. Virtually every one of the 50+ beautifully designed and programmed examples gives a huge leg up on the learning curve. I've been programming for 25 years, and this is one of the best programming books I've ever read. If you're a programmer, and want to learn Flash, get THIS book. :)

Flash 2004 MX has some exciting new features that make it a dominant program and solution in the increasing popularity of today's web market. To grasp these awesome new features, you must learn Actionscript. "Can't I just find instruction and answers in Macromedia's help index?" Quite honestly, no, but there is a resource that will not only help you understand this powerful programming language, but also will guarantee that you learn them the right way: Derek Franklin's Actionscript book "Training from the Source" is one of the best books on the market b/c it goes beyond sharing a bunch of code; it helps you truly understand how to script. Derek's approach is creative, fun, and filled with so much stuff, you'll always find new methods and ways of writing scripts just based on the examples in this book. There's no other book that gives you so much in a simplistic easy to understand way than this book. If you're new to Actionscripting, this book will build your confidence. If you're a seasoned verteran or wondering if you should purchase this book even though you have the previous version, the answer is a dramatic, yes. With Actionscript 2.0, Derek will show you how to make the transition from old scripting to the latest version, as well as help you learn the power behind Flash 7.

If you desire is to learn Flash's robust language and create dynamic websites, this book is a must.

After reading a number of customer reviews, I can only assume that the broad variations in ratings reflect different preferred learning methods among people. As for me, I think this book is terrific. The authors have painstakingly developed tutorials that stay focused on the subject-matter of each lesson. More importantly, lines of code are explained in detail, leaving little to the imagination.

This book is not for the impatient - I've seen smaller phone books. But if you're serious about learning Actionscript 2 and are willing to commit the time to work it from cover to cover, you'll add a strong marketable skill to your multimedia resume.

This book is written in an incredibly easy-to-understand style. The chapters are filled with step-by-step tutorials and the included CD has all of the program files you'll need for each one. The tutorials explain exactly what each part of your code affects and why it works, so while it may take awhile to absorb everything, it has it all outlined for you.

The structure of the book and the order of chapters is a bit non-linear. It skips around from topic to topic, and it's not always clear how one chapter is building into another. This may not be the best for someone wanting to learn actionscript incredibly well, but is a wonderful way to become familiar with syntax, explore applications, and gain a strong working foundation for Flash studies.

I've been working through the Franklin and Makar book for several weeks now. For someone like myself who has little programming experience and no previous knowledge of ActionScript, it is an excellent learning aid. The authors take the reader step-by-step, starting with simple projects and progressing to more advanced ones.

The authors say up front that this book assumes a basic knowledge of how Flash works. They focus on ActionScript, not how to set up objects on the stage, for example. So, if you're completely new to Flash, you might want to work through one of the excellent tutorials that are available for learning Flash MX 2004.

Having an English-instructor and professional-writer background, I'm sensitive to language usage. The authors' style is very conversational, a plus in this case. I did not notice the writing errors that one reviewer mentions. Nor did I detect the skipping around that another reviewer alluded to.

If you purchase a used copy, be sure that the CD is included. It contains two .fla versions of each Flash project: one without the ActionScripts, which you are asked to add the scripts to; and a completed version with all the ActionScripts intact.

I dropped one star from my rating for a few reasons. First, I wish they had included a .pdf version of the book, which would be much easier to read than the somewhat small print in the book. (I used the sample .pdf version of the first lesson, available online, to begin my studying and was sorry to have to switch over to the book when that lesson ended.)

Secondly, the authors fail to suggest that the reader first open the completed version of a Flash project to see what it does before analyzing the scripting.

Thirdly, the authors seem to think that typing in the ActionScript is a good learning exercise and make a point of directing the user to do that throughout the book. This approach may work for some learners, but for me it would just be a tedious exercise. Instead, I want to focus on the logic behind the scripting. So, instead of typing a script into its project, I copied and pasted each script from the completed Flash file into a Word file where I built my own set of notes.

My final reason for dropping one star is that in some cases I had to go to the internet to get further explanations on a topic the authors were discussing. This is a relatively minor issue because no book can cover everything, and the essense of learning is to seek out what you want to know.

Overall, this book has met my expectations and is doing exactly what I wanted it to do--taking me by baby steps through the mysteries of ActionScript 2.

I have found this a between bad and reasonable good book.
I have already a few years actionscript-experience and was looking for a book that could help me in the "whats new departement". Actually it has helped me to find out what is new in AS2.0 however the book is to slow for me (and I haven't done the actual lessons, I have only read it) What I mean is that when you have some actionscript experience I think you are better off buying another more advanced book (like object-oriented Actionscript) that helps in the "whats new departement" while you reading it without loosing time on endless explanations of things that speak for itself.

In this book there is one chapter on Object-oriented-programming (which by the way I found to be interesting). So again if you feel up to moving your programming to OOP than don't buy this book.

If you have no or very little experience with AS : buy it, its written for you!

If you already have some experience with ActionScript this book won't teach you the fundamentals of AS 2.0. The examples are boring and the way they are programmed is rather poor. Don't expect to go through all the magic and efficiency of AS 2.0. The best you can get from this book is picking some intersting advices sometimes, but it's definetly not worth the price. The only piece of code beautifully written is the chat server class written by Makar, and you can easily download it on his website ;)

First the styl of book is great like previous book (Macromedia Flash MX ActionScripting: Advanced Training from the Source) which i have. I was little bit confused if i opened the new book and saw the same tutorials. If you have the Macromedia Flash MX ActionScripting: Advanced Training from the Source than buy rather book from other author to enhance your "tutorial library".
At the end:
I like the Derek Franklin books, but if I buy new book i expect new content, not remake of older book.
If will out newer book of Derek Franklin ( e.g. Macromedia Flash MX 2006 ActionScript: Training from the Source
by Derek Franklin ;) ) I will read choicely the reviews before I buy it.
I any case if You don't have the great previous (Macromedia Flash MX ActionScripting: Advanced Training from the Source), i say BUY IT!
P.S. Sorry for any grammatical errors, I am foreigner and until quite recently I am begann to study English.