Customer Reviews

Macromedia Flash MX ActionScript Bible

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Flash MX action script Bible has it all. If you are a fully fledged programmer or a newbie this book is for you. it explains everything you need to know and more. It contains a thorough description of the action script language and a complete reference. I never thought I could go beyong creating buttons and making simple menus but this book took me step by step and was easy to get me where I wanted. I'm still learning a great deal from it and I'll probably keep on learning new stuff from the same book in the future. I bought this book for one purpose, making interactive and complex websites where I can customise everything and add interisting graphical elements. The book teaches you how to access the advanced features in XML, sound control, using LINGO to control flash, making games... The list is very long.
At first I was worried about the size of the book but soon to discover that it's organized in a way that optimizes the learning process. The authors put a lot of effort in explaining thoroughly what every line of code is doing and why it's written and they even thought of including the possible errors you might get if you use the code in a different setting.
I can go on and on talking about all the neat stuff I learned but to cut it short; this books makes flash scripting as easy as riding a bike and takes it a lot farther than you can imagine. I highly recommend it to everyone, even the advanced users.

Flash is a very powerful development tool that enables me to do some really cool things. But the painful reality is it takes a serious level of commitment and a great deal of time to get to be proficient at all it can do.

Using Flash I have produced many eLearning courses, interactions, banners, content pieces, and you get the idea. The Flash Bible series has made it possible for me to crank out all this work and to stay [reasonably] employed during the past two years. If you're wondering how you can keep up with all that's new in MX and still remain productive then you have to get this book.

For example, for a long time I was happy making movies without components. I wasn?t even sure what they were. Then I picked up a customer whose application would have been a major pain without them. Chapters 26, 27, and 28 brought me up to speed in just a couple of hours.

Flash development is a lot like that. Few of us can know it all. Who has the time to go out and find work, to complete projects on time [and on budget], and to learn all that's new? The Flash MX ActionScript Bible enables me to compete for work I would otherwise not be able to get.

Reinhardt and Lott do a very good job bringing all the new features of MX down to earth. Using the table of contents and index it's a simple thing to narrow down and find specific information on what you're looking for. Their explanations are easy to read, understand, and apply.

The Flash MX ActionScript Bible is very good to have around. Thanks guys!

The Flash MX Actionscript Bible is another tome of over 1000 pages in the Flash Bible series. It follows the successful formula established in earlier editions with its comprehensive coverage, detailed index, and bonus CD-ROM which includes numerous worked examples
The Actionscript Bible obviously concentrates on a detailed study of the Actionscript programming language and the preface states that the book "picks up where the Flash MX Bible left off". Consequently, a familiarity with Flash MX is a prerequisite and since this is a programming book, a novice reader must be prepared to tackle programming concepts. However, the authors help the novice programmer with a series of introductory chapters supplemented by worked examples.
Later chapters show how Actionscript can be used to enhance various aspects of Flash authoring. The coverage is comprehensive and the sample scripts can be adapted by the reader to achieve useful results while learning the language. Experienced Flash designers will find the book to be an essential reference manual, like earlier books in this series.

This is the second book I have purchased with Joey Lott and I have to say it is much better then the Remoting book but not by much. This book also has some examples that DO NOT WORK. Its rediculous to put examples in that are of no use. Besides that I really don't like his teaching style. He can get really confusing as he uses far to many terms to describe one word. Not only that but he switches as he pleases making you spend a lot of time back tracking trying to figure out what he is referring to. He also takes the long way around and I found myself taking a lot of notes to weed through and separate the learning from the babbling. It was really frustrating and I wasted so much time where I could have been learning. I have found better from instructors who are clearer, detailed and to the point. This book would probably be a few hundred pages less if he would do that. We would learn just as much.

This (like others have stated) is definitely not a good reference book nor is it a good book for beginners but if you are an intermediate and you have already gone through some tutorials or other books written by Joey (that way you know how to decipher his teachings/blabbering) then I say give it a try.

I got a lot of good notes deciphering his stuff into people terms which I have learned a lot.

I own both Flash MX Bible and this Flash MX ActionScript Bible, and to my opinion, neither of both have a comprehensive starting point. When one starts defining the use of functions AND arrays together, the other begins explaining the use of operators. The chapter ends with an extravagant example of a color object use WITHOUT explaining how the bitwise operators actually did the work. The result is that I still don't see the practical use of bitwise operators. Every chapter is the same. It ends with an example beyond the scope of what was just explained in that chapter.

I feel that author Joey Lott understands this subject so well that at many points forgets that many readers in the audience are native beginners, that unless they have grasped the concepts someplace else, they would be absolutely lost. Not to mention typos, like listing mismatches and so on.

Yet, I rate this book with 4 stars because of the outstanding quality of its knowledge and better approach to solve most common problems in everyday work. They would usually deliver an easier (at least more practical) way to overcome a particular scripting need.

This book has taken my way of visualizing, planning and executing Flash projects into a whole new level. It made look everything so easy and simple, giving me all the answers that I couldn't find in other tutorial books. It goes very detail in every aspect of ActionScript, making it easy to read and to follow up even for me as a European with the basic knowledge of English. Whether you're a beginner or advanced in Flash, you will always find something new, or something you have been doing wrong, wondering why they didn't work. After reading this book, Expert Mode in ActionScript will be more convenient for you to work in, as it is already for me.

I own both Flash MX Bible and this Flash MX ActionScript Bible, and to my opinion, neither of both have a comprehensive starting point. When one starts defining the use of functions AND arrays together, the other begins explaining the use of operators. The chapter ends with an extravagant example of a color object use WITHOUT explaining how the bitwise operators actually did the work. The result is that I still don't see the practical use of bitwise operators. Every chapter is the same. It ends with an example beyond the scope of what was just explained in that chapter.

I feel that author Joey Lott understands this subject so well that at many points forgets that many readers in the audience are native beginners, that unless they have grasped the concepts someplace else, they would be absolutely lost. Not to mention typos, like listing mismatches and so on.

Yet, I rate this book with 4 stars because of the outstanding quality of its knowledge and better approach to solve most common problems in everyday work. They would usually deliver an easier (at least more practical) way to overcome a particular scripting need.

Coming from a math backgroung and trying to learn Actionscript, I have some serious reservations about the mathematical examples in this book. The authors seem to take the most convoluted longwinded routes to make thier points wherever math is involved, and thus cloud the point they are trying to make. Furthermore, they seem to use the old Flash 5 methodology for event handling instead of updating to the newer methodology that is more consistent with OOP. Otherwise, I am still reading this and some other Actionscript books looking for the right fit.

I own both Flash MX Bible and this Flash MX ActionScript Bible, and to my opinion, neither of both have a comprehensive starting point. When one starts defining the use of functions AND arrays together, the other begins explaining the use of operators. The chapter ends with an extravagant example of a color object use WITHOUT explaining how the bitwise operators actually did the work. The result is that I still don't see the practical use of bitwise operators. Every chapter is the same. It ends with an example beyond the scope of what was just explained in that chapter.

I feel that author Joey Lott understands this subject so well that at many points forgets that many readers in the audience are native beginners, that unless they have grasped the concepts someplace else, they would be absolutely lost. Not to mention typos, like listing mismatches and so on.

Yet, I rate this book with 4 stars because of the outstanding quality of its knowledge and better approach to solve most common problems in everyday work. They would usually deliver an easier (at least more practical) way to overcome a particular scripting need.

I normally try to steer clear of technical books with the words "Bible", "Amazing", "Advanced", "in 24 hours" in the title. This is one book that I am glad I made an exception to that rule for.

It is a great reference book that explains the intricacies of ActionScripting and the built in objects that Macromedia provides (many of which Macromedia doesn't even document).
The book is filled with many real world examples, all of which are included on the CD-ROM.

With this book and the corresponding Flash MX Bible from the same author, there is nothing you cannot do in Flash MX.