Object-Oriented Macromedia Flash MX [Paperback]

William Drol (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 6, 2002 | ISBN-10: 1590590147 | ISBN-13: 978-1590590140 | Edition: 1

Object-Oriented Macromedia Flash MX teaches object-oriented programming skills using Flash MX ActionScript. It assumes no previous programming experience and encourages Flash users who normally avoid ActionScript. Author William Drol develops a series of related applications using numerous step-by-step instructions and demonstrates the importance of good planning, documentation, and clean coding. Flash MX is the most powerful and widely used client software for the Web, and it¿s the only one that runs on virtually every browser on every platform. As such, it is the ideal platform for sophisticated Web applications, especially when paired with XML. Sophisticated applications demand a solid understanding of object-oriented programming techniques, regardless of the language and platform used. This may be the only Flash book entirely devoted to object-oriented programming. This book is for readers who want to do more than load and publish the pre-built Flash MX templates, who want to make sure their work is reusable, who want to learn solid programming techniques and, above all, who want to build the next generation of Web-based applications. By the time they finish Object-Oriented Macromedia Flash MX, readers will be able to develop highly reusable applications and services that leverage the dynamic features in Flash MX ActionScript. About the Author William Drol entered Macromedia Flash development with a varied background in object-oriented programming and graphic design. His first experience with Macromedia was the admittedly quirky, but OOP-based Macromedia Director and Lingo. Today, there are many reasons to be excited about Flash MX and the hugely improved version of ActionScript. Drol looks forward to integrating Flash MX with Web services, and he pursues other technologies such as XML, XSLT, and his current favorite, Microsoft C#.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

William Drol entered Macromedia Flash development with a varied background in object-oriented programming and graphic design. His first experience with macromedia was the admittedly quirky, but OOP-based Macromedia Director and Lingo. Today, there are many reasons to be excited about Flash MX and the hugely improved ActionScript. Drol looks forward to integrating Flash MX with Web services, and he pursues other technologies such as XML, XSLT, and his current favorite, Microsoft C#. Learn more about the author at www.billdrol.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 482 pages
• Publisher: Apress; 1 edition (June 6, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590590147
• ISBN-13: 978-1590590140
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,785,583 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Good OOP can still be bad Actionscript, January 8, 2003

By 

Andrew Otwell "heyotwell" (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Object-Oriented Macromedia Flash MX (Paperback)

I'd originally written a more positive review, but I've reconsidered. There's a comment somewhere below that says something like "Drol's trying to shoehorn Flash into a paradigm that it doesn't fit" and that's really right.

OOP is the focus here, and Flash does do OOP, but in a very quirky way. Specificly, inheiritance--one of the three key concepts in OOP--simply doesn't work well in Flash. You just have to plan your code differently. It's worth noting that Wan and Hall, authors of the definitive OOP in Flash book "OOP in Actionscript" suggest that *you don't use inheiritance* unless there's no other way to structure your code. Unlike Drol, Wan and Hall are among the most active and helpful coders in the Flash programming world. They know what they're talking about.

Drol doesn't even mention some of the problems his approach to inheiritance can cause (specifically, firing an object's constructor function twice with each child object created). It's for Drol irresponsible to outline an approach like this that isn't aware of the substantial work that others in the Flash community have done to address and work around the problem. A complex application built Drol's way could have real problems in Flash.

Flash MX's component architecture is actually an extremely powerful flexible OOP system. But where Drol doesn't mention it at all, Wan and Hall devote several chapters to it.

Ther's also just not too much meat on the bones. The examples really are pretty bad: bouncing balls? Yet another dynamic menu system? Instructional, but hardly inspiring, and they show up in *every* Flash book ever printed. (Tip to aspiring authors: find a graphic designer who can make your example projects really special. Don't use ugly "programmer graphics.")

Drol is a programmer first, and a Flasher second, which means he's opposed to workarounds to accomodate Flash's admittedly weird ways of doing things. There are places where he just doesn't go that deep, like Components or text handling. Again, these aren't the focus of the book, but things like that really are the basis of most Flash projects.

A final comparison to Wan and Hall's "OOP in Actionscript": Hall and Wan do cover Flash-specific concepts (like Components) in painful, astounding detail. They also aren't shy about digging into Flash's guts to build a workaround. Where Drol tends to keep his instrucitonal code examples short, at times at the expense of performance or flexibility, Wan and Hall have no qualms about tossing a two-page script out and expecting you to get it. In their book, new and complex topics fly past faster than you can think, sometimes even within code comments. Drol never does this, preferring to simplify and explain fundamentals.

Finally, where's the fun? Flash's appeal is that people with varied skills and interests can still do cool stuff with it. There are a lot of books that manage to preserve this spirit of play and experimentation, even when covering dense technical topics (again, Wan and Hall manage this). Drol's projects are dry and without real-world appeal. Why not build an object-based game? Or a small useful application, like a RSS-feed reader?

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book that will save you time on your projects, August 9, 2002

By 

Web Head (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Object-Oriented Macromedia Flash MX (Paperback)

This book is one of the best Flash books on the market. I have read well over 15 books on the subject and this ranks as one of the best. I was forced to read almost half of another un-named book to figure out how to convert an XML newsfeed into my Flash site at work. If I had only been able to read chapter 24 in this book first, I could have saved about a day's work! That function alone was well worth the price of the entire book! And yes, I had to use 'the hard way' described at the beginning of that chapter.
The other projects in the book lead you through an easy-to-follow process, and each chapter adds on the previous one so by the end, you have many awesome, time-saving functions that you can RE-USE from project to project.
One last thing, although I havent read through all the appendices, I found an in appendix B (Interacting with a Web Server) an easy method to bring my data into Flash. (he uses XML but it worked just as easily for me using PHP and MySQL)
Thats what this book does, it breaks down (once thought difficult) processes into easy to do and easy to use functions. I recommend this book whole-heartedly.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Certified Flash Developer, October 2, 2002

By 

Steven M. Kilingbeck "skillingbeck" (minneapolis, mn United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Object-Oriented Macromedia Flash MX (Paperback)

I am a flash expert and have been doing flash for 4 years and have won awards, and I am certified too.

I have read several books on OOP and UML,
after reading this book, it really put it all into perspective
and in context with flash, he lays down some theory then busts into real examples / tutorials and teaches you how to really apply OOP in flash, I was amazed at the clarity and power of the lessons. I was reluctant to buy this book at first because I have never heard of this author in the flash community, so I went to the book store and examined it for a while and decided to take a chance on it, and I am glad I did!!!

He teaches you encapsulation, inheritance, polymorphism etc...
how to extend classes, how to build a framework and services for your application etc...

He definitely knows his stuff, it has changed my coding / architecture style drastically. A+++++++++++ 100%