Object-Oriented ActionScript for Flash 8

by Todd Yard, Peter Elst, Gerald YardFace

Object-Oriented ActionScript For Flash 8 teaches the theory and practice of OOP with ActionScript. You do not need any extensive prior programming experience, you just need to want to go beyond the usual Flash interfaces. Authors and working Flash developers Peter Elst and Todd Yard take you through the complete development cycle of a series of related applications, using numerous step-by-step instructions. You'll be able to develop highly reusable...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1590596196
• ISBN13: 9781590596197
• Release Date: February 2006
• Publisher: Apress
• Length: 560 Pages
• Weight: 2.03 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 7.9" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Trop fort

Ce livre est fantastique. Vous allez découvrir l'autre face de Flash 8 grâce à P.Elst et T.Yard. Fini de bricolage, ils vous livrent les meilleures bases de la POO pour AS2. Et je peux vous dire que AS2 n'est pas mort.

The book to OWN for OOP with AS 2.0

Object-Oriented Actionscript for Flash 8 Introduction: Object-Oriented Actionscript for Flash 8 from Friends of ED (Apress) is a great book for intermediate and advanced Flash Developers who want to learn more about OOP and AS 2.0. This books is definitely not intended for Flash Designers or those with limited experience in Actionscript. This book would be a great introduction to Actionscript 2.0 for any traditional computer programmer with experience in Object-Oriented programming techniques who is looking to start developing Rich Internet Applications with Flash. First the bad news: While the majority of this book was full of useful information, I believe their are a few chapters that are completely out of place and should have been removed from the book. The Planning and Project Workflow chapters should have been combined into a one or two page reference located in the back of the book. Since the intended audience is someone that should be familiar with advanced web development, there is no need to include any information about CVS. This could have been written in one sentence... "Any good programmer will utilize some type of file storage and source control application, and I recommend using blah blah blah software." I almost stopped reading the book at this point and had to force my way through the text. Now for the good news: The writing style, or "voice" as some people call it, was excellent. It did not feel like I was trying to read a programming book, and instead felt like a colleague or personal friend was giving you a training on the subject matter. I also thought the the Design Patterns information was very informative and I felted like I could immediately change some of the programming techniques in my current projects to have them run more smoothly. The Media Player Case Study was spot on! How many clients have asked for a media player as part of the requirements of an application? This is a "real world" example that I will study and use hundreds of times, unlike some so-called "real world" examples like XYZ Corp needs a web site to view their magazine subscriptions. I have read a few other books on this subject, and most of them use way too generic examples that will never be applicable unless you actually land that Bank Client who needs a home loan calculator! Although, there was a semi-useless timesheet example at the very end of the book :) I also enjoyed reading about the tweening techniques used in the OOP Animation and Effects chapter, along with the much needed explainations of how Flash components can be used with OOP in Rich Internet Applications. Conclusion: While there is room for improvement, I would highly recommend this book to any advanced programmer or an intermediate Flash Developer looking to better their already established Actionscript 2.0 skills. The Media Player example is enough to make this book worth the money. Book Rating: 9 / 10

EXCELLENT... best Actionscript Book on the Market...

In the last 7 years, I've bought over 30 books on Flash and Actionscript. Usually I'll get through the first 20 pages, get bored, and skim through the rest. This book is hands-down the best book on Actionscript programming ever written to date. It's excellent for three reasons: 1, it teaches you to code with object-oriented standards, 2, it teaches you to code with object-oriented standards, and 3, it teaches you to code with object-oriented standards. Furthermore, it's written in a very easy-to-understand format that could take anyone off the street and turn them into an Actionscript professional. A MUST-read for any Flash developer that doesn't already live, breathe and die object-oriented practices.

Excellent book for beginners in OOP

I finally decided to take the plunge into OOP after I realized that is where Flash is headed. With the advent of ActionScript 3.0 around the corner (or out now if you're already dabbling in it), you just know that everything is soon going to be class based. This book is a great start to your journey, as someone who originally started to read Colin Moock's Essential ActionScript 2.0 will tell you. It is a LOT easier to read than EA2.0 as I'm not well versed on theory nor do I, at least at this point, really care that much about it. I'm one of those people who want to dive in and learn the syntax/usage, and then I'd like to figure out where it all stems from, not the other way around as it just makes it harder for me to learn that way. The beginning chapters are great and teach you very much about the basics of OOP. If you're an experienced programmer, you honestly probably won't get much out of this book as this would all be stuff you already know. If you're a beginner, however, this is perfect for you. As a pro (and a con on some level) of this book, some of the pages explain how to set up the document before you work on it. This is good for people who are new to Flash, but in my eyes if you're new to Flash you shouldn't be reading an OOP book to start you into programming as this won't help you really learn the syntax. If you're using this book, it should be assumed you already know the basic Flash syntax and won't need to be told how to set the document size (pages 84-92 are basically wasted on setting up a document for coding one of the examples). There is a chapter on design patterns that is really good and explains their functionality pretty well. One thing to note in this chapter is that it comes kind of early in the book and sometimes (at least for me) it was hard to grasp the whole concept of what the Model View Controller, for instance, was doing because I'm still not thinking in terms of OOP, rather procedural, so I had to go back and re-read some of the design pattern stuff a couple of times to fully understand it (and I'm not sure that I do still to this point, but that's outside of the scope of this book). The one knock I have on the book, which really is a non-issue to be honest, but it's a bit funny to see all the editorial errors through these technical books. It makes you wonder if the editors really read the whole thing or just skim it. I feel this book definitely gets me ready to move on to greener pastures, a la Essential ActionScript 2.0, which I should now be ready to dive into. I don't feel like I'm an OOP expert after reading this, but I don't think that was the main point of the book. Of course, I learn a lot slower than others because I have a design background and no programming background whatsoever, but the book was painless to read and I enjoyed it greatly. Don't get me wrong if this review is sounding half negative, the book is essential to anyone getting started with OOP (as I am), and I highl

Take your Flash developing to the next level!

Before reading this book I thought that OOP meant writing a class and applying it to as many objects as I wanted. Was I ever wrong! This book not only gives you thorough explanations of what OOP is, it also provides detailed explanations on why you should use it. It's hard to explain the misconceptions that many people can pick up by trying to learn OOP by reading random articles around the web. This gently leads you through all the elements of OOP and clears up any of the misconceptions you may have previously had. It even teaches you programming techniques and design patterns such as how to separate the data and control from the style as well as how to manage multiple styles, colors, sounds, etc. with one class and dynamically apply them to whatever objects you want. Elst and Yard develop a good foundation of planning, workflow, and best practices without preaching their way as the only way. It is nice to see them agree that there is more than one way to write code and whichever way works best for you is the best way. Once they dive in to teaching encapsulation, polymorphism, and inheritance through examples you will have a clear understanding of what these terms are and why they are so important. In fact, what I loved the most about this book is that it clearly teaches all the benefits of OOP instead of just teaching how to use OOP. You will honestly come away from reading this book eager to create your own OOP packages or even components and you will have the knowledge and confidence to put them together. If you are looking to start developing Flash applications or advanced interactive websites, this book is worth every penny.