Flash 5 Magic with ActionScript

With Flash MX available on the market there seems to be little point in reviewing a book with Flash 5 in title, right? Wrong. There are still many users who have not upgraded to the latest version of the Flash Player plugin. Also, there are a growing number of users viewing Flash content on pocket and mobile devices, which use a cut-down Flash Player for devices, which is always one version behind the latest release of the grown-up Flash Player.

Authors: J. Scott Hamlin and David J. Emberton with contributions by Matthew David, Jennifer S. Hall, John Lenker, and Samuel Wan
Publisher: New Riders
ISBN: 0-7357-1023-6
Pages: 380
Get it now from Amazon

Flash 5 Magic with ActionScript is one of many New Rider books for beginner Flash designers and developers. It is aimed at those readers who like to learn how to do things by following the process of building a Flash site or application step-by-step, from the original idea to a working product.

This approach is quite different from many other ActionScript programming books, which start with descriptions of syntax, basic language constructs, and standard library. None of that can be found here, which is surprising in a book on ActionScript. However, this book is aimed more at designer folks, who are rather reluctant to learn programming. That explains why this book on programming looks like a coffee table book for Flash geeks.

The authors present what could be considered the rudiments of ActionScript programming with great attention to detail. The readers will find here a lot of explanations of why something is done that way and not another and tips on how to accomplish the given task. Every page oozes with code, screenshots, and sidebars. The reader simply cannot get lost on the way, which is very good for beginners.

The readers will learn about such important topics like handling keyboard input, printing with flash, programming with trigonometry, working with XML, using audio, and more. Every topic is thoroughly explained and heavily illustrated.

Because the book is divided into six parts describing six different applications, it can be a little difficult to locate the topics you are looking for. Fortunately, the publisher remembered to print a handy index of techniques described in this book. You will find it on the inside of the book's covers.

The weakest part of this book is the description of Flash database connectivity and Flash-ASP interaction. But these topics are hard to explain to beginners or designers anyway as they require a separate book or two to explain them in detail.

A useful feature of the book is the CD-ROM, which holds all project files necessary to follows the tutorials. I am writing about this because I am rarely happy with the contents of CD-ROMs sold with books. However, this time the CD-ROM truly is a part of the book and does enhance its value.

Flash 5 Magic with ActionScript is one of the few books on programming that is a pleasure to look at. I recommend this tome to all beginner Flash designers and developers. Also, this book could be a good classroom resource for Flash instructors.

Five stars out of five possible. Recommended.

 

Copyright 2002 Jacek Artymiak

 

 

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