Customer Reviews

Object-Oriented Macromedia Flash MX

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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?

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.

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%

As a Flash teacher, I review a lot of books for potential classroom use. Many use ultra-friendly language to try to make scripting easy to swallow. Others are thorough technical references that make no excuses for leaving non-programmers in a haze of question marks. Others walk you step-by-step through the construction of some really boring projects.

This is not a book for someone who wants to make first steps into actionScript, but if you're wondering how Flash "thinks" and want to get a bit deeper understanding of good programming practices and concepts, this book offers an excellent bridge.

I have mostly a creative background and actionScript is really the first programming language to have captured my attention. If you're willing to sit down and work through the exercises, you'll find this book to be well-written and not-at-all dry. It presents some powerful insights into OOP that are useful in real-world design applications.

For first steps and easy references, the visual quickstart guide and the Advanced Visual QuickPro guide are affordable and easy-to-use. If you are comfortable writing functions and using if statements, you're ready. Get into Object Oriented Flash MX and learn how Flash really works. It belongs in your Flash library.

I was in an ActionScript training class when the instructor mentioned object-oriented programming. He spent as much time explaining it as it takes to read this sentence. Somehow I know it was "the big picture" for success with ActionScript.

As an ActionScript novice, it was important to me to learn the basics besides the "stop();" command. When you need to immerse yourself in a programming language, it is equally important to be shown the elements of building in that language as 3-dimensionally as possible. That's what William Drol does with this book. While he makes no assumptions about the user's skill level, he does assume that the programmer want to learn "the value of good planning and good coding". That's what I've learned from using this book.

As a multimedia developer, planning is paramount. I believe this book will show you a way of thinking to help ease the planning process and make the discipline of coding easier. I look forward to working on future projects now in Flash MX, with the confidence of having Mr. Drol's book as a solid foundation and reference to guide me.

My first reaction to this book was to admire the intention behind it. However, the graphicial content of the book (viz, example projects and screenshots) oscillate between being too primitive on the one hand, ann too narrowly scoped on the other. If memory serves me there are probably no more than half-a-dozen flash screenshots throughout the body of the text. Really a bad oversight.

I don't quibble with the coding. The book is trying to shoehorn Actionscript into a paradigm for which it is still unprepared. I do think that many more useful examples could have been developed. The book could do with being rubbed up against some of the VB intro books (and Java) to help guide topic selection for the next edition - if there is one. In particular, I like to see algorithms described in psuedo-code, before being nailed down into actual code.

There are some useful points made about parent-child inheritance and child-child inheritance, many of which resonate with experienced VB programmers. One of the strengths of VB is its Multiple Document Interface support and the author could have stuck in something here to illuminate the contrast.

Even though Actionscript is an ECMA script compliant language, I can't think of any book that actually treats 'data structures' in actionscript - some of the games books do present good algorithmic work. In an OO book, I had expected this lacuna to be addressed, but I'll await another edition.

I learnt some useful things from this book, but I still can't quite accept it as an OO book. Certainly, I doubt if one could get a purchase on a breath of design in OO through this book, but perhaps I am mistaken here.

My most serious reseervation about the text is that it doesn't give the reader enough exposure to foster respect for any particular design paradigm. For instance, a UML subset could have been introduced as programme design methodology. And this in many ways is the nub of my problem with the book. If the text is about programming then it should reference and use programming design standards. If it is about Visual Programme assembly (putting the movie togeher) then bring in the relevant aesthetic approach. You pays your money and takes your chance, I suppose, in the long run.

I've read countless books on ActionScripting and this one is by far the best. The author obviously has a talent for teaching that puts this book heads and shoulders above many other Flash ActionScript books that have received excellent reviews on this site. Get this book if you REALLY want to understand not only how to use ActionScripting but WHY you want to use it. I can't tell you how may Ah Ha! moments I've had reading it. Excellent!

I have always been programming ActionScript as a web designer... i bought several books and i went on designing very complex applications, such as news caster editors, or other things...
What io was missing was a plot... an overall image to start building flash projects in a more efficient and coherent way...

This book helped me so much, and broadened my vision of the whole OOP ActionScript...
It is for advanced scripters, but beginners too can learn a lot from this book...

There is another OOP ActionScript book from Brnaden Hall et al which is very good, but that is really for advanced programmers. Start by this good Bill Droll book...

And one more *GREAT* thing... i had some problems with some code in the book (that was due to my typing error). I emailed the euthor himself who has been very helpful and friendly...

I really advice this book if you want to start the topic of OOP in ActionScript.

I must respond to a previous review that complained about no CD. You may have noticed that fewer and fewer computer books include an accompanying CD. There are two good reasons for this:

1. Book CDs increase the final purchase price.
2. Book CDs grow out of date soon after printing (as corrections are discovered).

That's why the complete source code for this book is available on the publisher's site (apress.com). My own site (billdrol.com) has the full source code and all corrections since the book was published.

If you're developing Flash MX with any serious interest, then you have an Internet connection. Even at 28.8, it takes less than a minute to download everything (and then you get the most recent content possible).

I always commend the efforts of strong programmers who write books tailored for those of us who are not.As designers we generally absorb and learn information in a totally different manner than programmers and this book addresses that fact well. Most programming books are incomplete because they leave out steps in thier explanations assuming that it's obvious to the reader at some point or another and Mr. Drols' book covers 98% of everything you need to know to understand the foundations of ActionScript and how it works. I am glad I bought it and recommend new users to read it and follow the tutorials thoroughly twice or more to get the most out of it. You will be able to write clean, reusable functions and code for your projects that you thought were impossible.