Object-Oriented Programming with ActionScript (Paperback)

Though I'm not a Flash historian, I believe Branden and Sam were critical in the strong hack-together OOP movement at the end of Flash 5's life and genesis of Flash MX's birth. This is the kind of insider perspective that, if you are interested in taking advantage of ActionScript MX-style, will prove very handy in your development.

Branden and Sam have written this book with a kind of geek wonder and gee-whiz discovery that speaks to my programmer heart. They do a great job so describing hard-won ActionScript-specific coding practices and techniques along side actual code samples.

I have been programming professionally for a while but the looseness of Actionscript is enough to drive me insane (i.e. AS's unwillingness to throw errors on undefined functions or variables combined with my horrible spelling skills). The author's tricks like the _resolve function on page 68 which can catch undefined function calls, as they as called, are a GODSEND!

The book covers setting up a good Flash MX development layout, having data-aware components, XML, creating Heap structures, debugging techniques and building components from scratch with an Actionscript bent. It also has two great guest chapter writers: Andreas Hiem (Server Integration) and Nigel Pegg (Components).

I'm definitely gushing here but there is no fluff or wasted space here. I think they did a great job of sharing their knowledge and I hope, when they collect enough new material, they will write another book....

Flash MX has brought a lot more capabilities to the table - but implementing them isn't always very easy. This book explains OOP in a way everyone can understand, then presents real-world situations where you'd benefit from this development approach.

Components are covered in depth, and even Nigel Pegg from Macromedia chimes in with some of his own chapters. The book covers OOP principles, how to conduct OOP in Flash, covers component creation, working with components that already exist, implementing live previews with components, debugging guidance, using ASFunction with text fields, passing variables to from, data structures, and they even close the book out with some useful bits of AS code you might be able to reference for your own projects.

This is an amazing resource, artfully and precisely written, by some of the most talented coders on the planet. I highly reccommend this title.

The authors spell out many things that you otherwise have to learn on your own, through exhaustive trial and error.

This book, along with Colin Moock's, is among the few that truly delve into Advanced Topics. (Some other books call themselves Advanced but often just briefly describe the Advanced features without giving real-life examples).

The authors do a great job explaining the application of OOP techniqes in ActionScript. A warning to novices though: you'll get a lot more out of this book if you already have some knowledge of OOP!

They cover many other topics in depth, with actual code samples, including:

* Design Patterns for Flash, including a Model-View-Presenter sample
* Events, Callbacks and Listeners, and how to define your own Custom Events
* Data-Aware Components using the DataProviderClass
* Anti-Distortion in FUI-style Components
* Building your own Components, including Live Preview
* "Textfield Mangling" and HTML text fields
* Remote Debugging
* Flash Remoting

There's a lot more too. It's hard to get accurate information about any of these topics anywhere else--even on the Macromedia website--so a book that collects them all in one place is a godsend.

The writing style is lively and to-the-point, and the book design is clean, readable, and attractive. I highly recommend this book for all advanced ActionScript programmers who want to refine their craft.