(7 votes, average: 3.86 out of 5) 
Loading ...If you are a teacher or trainer currently using Learning ActionScript 3.0 in a class, please get in touch. We are considering developing additional teaching resources (we have nothing created as of yet) and are anxious to know what you think would help you most. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the book? What tools will help you in your teaching? Any opinions will be appreciated!
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I have waited a very long time for someone to ask me that question. The perfect book would be the one that taught me how to build a website with AS3 using an empty .fla file. If the instructor made sure to explain in detail how to go about creating the classes. I know in theory how to do it but to put it into practice is totally different. For instance where does all the content you create go. I’m not speaking of the content you create with actionscript. I’m referring to the graphics that are created. Are they jpegs that are imported at runtime? Also make the website a relevant topic, such as a web designer’s website. Have pages like home(about me), portfolio, contact. Make it interactive. This way you utilize all the senarios that may develop in a real world application. Please contact me for further detail if this is something you are interested in.
i would agree with the person above,
ths book claims it’s meant for people who start out and people from design wanting to start coding. That is just not true. In the latter chapters, you get ready made classes with exeption handling, error handling, other synatx and complexity that no way people will understand by having just read this book. The whole concept of exeption handling is introduced too soon imo. The books ends with the notion, that “now you have read these chapters, you can wire it all together” .. and that is also not true. From reading the book, like the above speaker says, it is not possible to know how to construct a site, a simple game or other simple web based app, unless you posses some magical powers..Not to mention the useless intro on singletons, which is way to compact to understand fully to use it, and could have been left out.
What this book DOES do well, is that it’s diverse on topics, and filled with good examples that you can use later on, bound together in a compact book with friendly approach. but this book won’t teach you actionscript syntax or finishing a project. it didnt work for me.
I started with ess actionsctipt from Moock, then did this book, then got into Gaia framework, which gave me the ” tools to wire it all together”, and finally now i code into PureMVC..
my2cents
@Demetrius/@Igor, thanks for writing. I sincerely value the input. I’ll comment below, but I think much of this is a matter of personal preference and there isn’t really any right or wrong approach.
@Igor, I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy the book. It’s hard to read things like “useless” and the fact that you need magical powers to benefit from what we’ve written. I don’t agree with some of your assessments, but I suppose that’s obvious because we’re talking about LAS3. Still, I will take your opinions into account for any future project.
We tried hard to design this book for beginners and judging the success or failure of a beginner’s approach by the later chapters is a bit spurious, in my humble opinion. LAS3 is the only ActionScript 3 book that I know of that doesn’t expect extensive prior knowledge and an immediate, or near-immediate, understanding of classes. It allows you to start out in the timeline, procedurally, focusing on syntax, and then grow into the use of classes and OOP concepts starting in Chapter 6.
At the same time, it would be criminal to ignore these concepts and not to try to provide possible solutions for the problems that invariably arise when using AS3. To ignore error handling altogether is something I just couldn’t do. You may be correct that we didn’t explain these concepts sufficiently. I’ll go back over the book with that in mind when we prepare a revision sometime in the future. Unfortunately, we were given a page limit of 350 pages by the publisher–a limit they kindly, and supportively, allowed us to exceed, and we had to make very difficult decisions along the way.
As to the useless intro into Singletons, this is a matter of opinion, of course. This was included for two reasons. First, Chapter 15 was designed to be a “where do we go from here” chapter. This was actually by request, from focus group research that included several user groups. The majority opinion held that books that just focus on the language, without addressing “next steps” or working methodologies, provided only part of the picture. Chapter 15 was meant to expose the reader that had completed Chapters 1 through 14 to things that might be of interest after graduating to beyond the pages of this book. It covers programming methodologies, provides resources to explore, and introduces the reader to the concept of design patterns. The page count we were given disallowed any detailed introduction or coverage of design patterns, so the decision was made to introduce the topic as a direction pointer for further learning. I thought I made that idea clear, but I’ll reread the text to consider possible changes.
The Singleton pattern was chosen not only because of its comparative size as explained above, but also as a possible solution for the loss of the global variable from AS2. The idea was, you may run into this need, or feel the absence of the previously existing functionality described, and–if/when you do–here is something that may help. You are not the first to suggest that the design pattern section be left out. Believe me, we wrestled with this quite a bit. However, the number of emails we’ve received that support its inclusion vastly outweigh those suggesting its removal, so I’m not convinced its a total failure. Perhaps some future revision will solve the chapter’s possible identity crisis, and I’m open to ideas.
As to your comment, and that of @Demetrius, about basing the book on a project, this is a book that teaches a programming language from fundamentals up. It is not project-based. Through many years of teaching, I have never found working through a handful of projects to be more successful than focusing on programming principles and the language. I’ve found, without fail, that building up a single, cumulative project is an absolute nightmare. Inevitably, the scaffolding required to support ongoing and added features detracts from the syntax you’re trying to focus on in each chapter. AS3 makes this even harder. It’s difficult to cover the display list in any detail without first discussing events, but it’s also difficult to cover events in any detail without being able to use display objects. You have to bite the bullet and try to
This problem is common in the Help files, or in tutorials I’ve seen, because it can be difficult to avoid. For example, I’ve seen tutorials on how to create a component, that choose an unnecessarily involved tool as the purpose of the component. If you have to wade through and explain the programming of a feature-complete scroll bar, you lose focus on how to create the component.
Personally, I’ve found that, after focusing on projects, a reader/student can create those projects and little else. Learning the language, on the other hand, gives you the background to create things of your own. I found the differences between these two approaches analogous to the adage, “give a man a fish and you have fed him for today; teach a man to fish and you have fed him/he can feed himself for a lifetime.” Certainly the comparison isn’t perfect because learning a language is a good deal more complex and there is a greater learning curve. However, the idea is similar. I prefer to provide as much of the building skills as I can, rather than teach how to complete a set of widgets.
In the end, this is all down to taste. Every author must decide how to structure a book, every teacher must decide how to teach a class, etc. Each reader is on a quest for the book that teaches a topic in a way best suited to their learning style. We worked really hard, for example, to include full-color syntax to help support visual learners. We tried hard to include a wide variety of topics (which you, @Igor, mentioned, thanks) so that the largest range of basic syntax and skills would be included. We have received an overwhelming number of emails favoring the current approach. Similarly, if we used a game as the project, readers who wanted to create something else (like a full-Flash site) would be dissatisfied that the book didn’t advertise itself as a gaming book, and vice versa. Many feel, for example, that full-Flash sites are not optimized and that including Flash elements within an HTML skeleton is a better delivery. As you can imagine, this, too, is an debated opinion that comes down to personal preference. In my experience, it is better to start with fundamentals and principles and then seek out the topic- or project-specific book that suits your needs best. This allows you, after attaining a background in the language, to seek out a book on gaming, site development, data/RIA, animation, etc.–all of which are typically wildly different and any one of which would never satisfy every learner. How can you teach a new, or partially new, language to someone using a project in which they have no interest?
@Igor, I admire your learning path. I assume your point is that LAS3 fails to provide you with what is necessary to create a project. If so, I’ll consider removing such claims from a book that focuses on fundamentals. On a side note, your learning path reenforces my view of how and why LAS3 was designed. In my opinion, EAS3 is by no means a beginner’s book, and the goal of the Gaia framework is to provide all the necessary skeletal structure to automatically create Flash sites quickly and easily. I would vehemently disagree with anyone that suggests that using the Gaia framework is a way to learn ActionScript 3 from scratch. In fact, the creator of Gaia has said that beginners shouldn’t learn AS3. I don’t agree, but it’s not a novel sentiment. Gaia is a great tool, but LAS3 tries to accomplish something else.
Finally, I find it staggering that you say this book won’t teach you ActionScript syntax. That simply befuddles me. In any case, I wish you luck with your coding.
Wow, what a long comment. Good to see that you ve taken the time for such a long reply, the fact that you feel downhearted by my comments only shows the dedication and belief in your own work from your side.I have respect such things.
At the same time i feel that altough my writing style was a bit direct, you might take this a little too heavy on the chin. I dont say your book is useless. in fact, i read it from page one to the last page, and tell others to do so as well. I use the code examples the come with it in my work as junior flasher every day. And i thank you for that. Still i think that the jumps you make in each subsequent chapters (especially from chap ter 6 onwards, abd the final few chapters) are too rough to grasp..well at least for me, as i wrote..
i picked up your book, because having worked basically through much of the Ess Actionscript 3.0 from Moock, i felt that altough i knew much practical syntax, i missed more usable everyday life examples. I found them in your book. This is it´s strongest point, and again thanx for that.
However, in quest for more. at some point i wanted to make complete projects, be it a game, a website, a web based quiz, video site, anything that provides me the challenges and the issues of completing a whole project from start to end..having grasped only a little bit of the design pattern material in that single chapter 15 left me little frustrated…so now what ? HOW do i put this all together, If you write about it somewhere in the book and i missed it, i apologize. .., to be honest i m still waiting for the final assignment which you write about in the book but which never came…
This is what i found in Gaia and now, in pure mvc… Some metaphorical umbrella, to deliver full projects..
I ll conclude by saying that there is not definitive guide to actionscript.
While Moock tought me the syntax, you provided the everyday examples, in a useful, compact and diverse approach, and other sources helped me to wire it all together….I feel that one needs to get through all of them to grasp the sheer number of information which Actionscript and programming holds.
Dear Rich and Zevan, I’d like to thank you for writing so easy to read yet very organized and profound book on ActionScript 3.0. Having no prior programming experience I have started learning AS3 with Essential ActionScript 3.0 by Colin Moock. It was challenging enough but still very helpful for those who like me have the time, energy and enthusiasm to devote yourself to the topic.
Then I went to reading your book and suddenly everything fell into its own place. The book is well organized and I like your writing style - very light, understandable for a novice like me, explaining the essential details. Those interested in all the little details, could simply go to a more comprehensive reference guide by Colin Moock.
In my opinion, these books give an exception opportunity to learn AS3. There are very few good books on the subject on the market nowdays. Its a great learning source.
I totally agree with you, Rich, about basing a book on programming principles rather than trying to create some project. It really doesn’t give you much rather than an experience of building a single project after completing the book. What I wanted from the book is to learn how to build different projects not limiting to one single type. And your book have helped me tremendously in that.
Thank you for creating this book to help all starting Flash developers!
@Kat, Thanks very much for your thoughtful comments. I’m glad you like the approach we took when writing the book. I, too, recommend an additional book to serve as a reference when you’re comfortable with the basics.
I certainly understand the desire to follow through a few projects from start to finish, and we’re contemplating a companion book that will do just that. The idea is, LAS3 will serve as the basis in fundamentals, and the companion book will not need to reiterate some of that material. (We’ll need to assume some readers may not have LAS3, but we don’t have to repeat the whole book.)
We’re working through schedule and project issues at the moment, so we’re not sure when, or even if, it will happen, but it’s on our bucket list. Heh.
I have worked my way successfully to Chapter 5 and by reading through each chapter twice, I have been able to comprehend and in some cases move ahead on everything covered so far.
I have no previous programming experience with AS or OOP, in fact I taught myself HTML and CSS and that’s it.
I bought Moock’s Essential AS3 as a companion to this book and will move on to it after finishing this one.
I briefly looked at some of the early chapters in Essential AS3 and quickly put it down. It is not for the beginner!!
Your quiz section on this site has been reassuring as I scored 100% for each of the sections I have covered which helps to show that learning has taken place, even if it doesn’t feel like it!
Whilst some of the concepts do take careful thought in order to understand the logic, the writing style (use of analogies) and structure has made it an excellent teaching aid.
I hope to get to grip with the syntax as I progress but feel sure that many answers not provided (or comprehended) in the text explanation due to page limits, will be provided with this online accompaniment.
Shame I live in the UK and am unable to attend your training sessions.
Thanks for the resource.
I’d love to see a start to finish explanation of a game project like this one: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash/samples/game_2/index.html
After playing with that and skimming over the classes, I already feel like I’ve learned more, or at least have some ideas for experimentation.
Or, if games aren’t your cup of tea, another project that would be fun would be an photo gallery like imagevue.
It would be great to start the project at a concept level. Lay it all out before a single line of code is typed. What do we want our game to do? How can we break what we want to do into different classes, and what does the class structure look like? Which classes will handle what, how do they communicate/work with each other? Where do we begin? You could even go so far as to show multiple ways to do things, and the pros and cons of doing them each way.
Most AS3 examples and tutorials out there that I’ve found are single classes or are in the timeline (yuck). It’s difficult to learn how to take something like that and be able to transfer it into something large scale that has many different class files.
Chapters could focus not so much on introducing concepts, but rather on adding new functionality to our project. I think that would help to make the book more appealing. Just imagine looking at the index… The first couple chapters, setting up the game window, UI elements, creating our hero, adding player controls, adding enemies, AI, win/loss conditions… you get the point. Each of those functionality goals could very well end up introducing a new concept anyways. Chapter titles like that would get me a lot more excited than something generic like “Arrays” or “Event handling,” even though they could very well be covering the same material.
Well, seems no teacher apeared here yet.
I am a programing teacher in Brazil. Usually my classes are filled with designers that never writed a line of code.
I am using your book for the first time as a material on a 128 hour course named Advanced Flash. My mission in this course is to help students become prepared to create they on projects on Flash. This means banners, games and of course web sites.
So this course superpass AS3.
That said, we are still in the beggening of the course, and so far, the book has been a very good resource. It’s the best book for AS3 begginers with no doubt.
It’s a shame we didn’t have a portuguese version yet.
@Julio, thanks very much for your comment. I’ll pass on to O’Reilly the interest in a Portuguese version.
@Charlie, thanks for your thoughts and examples. We’re considering a project-based companion volume as an intermediate resource. The next step in learning, for example. I firmly believe that a cumulative project is not well-suited to teaching the language from scratch to beginners. The link you provided, for example, is aimed at an advanced audience. Still, reader feedback is invaluable and I appreciate your ideas.
Matt, I’ll be attending Flash on the Beach in Brighton in the fall and I’ll post more information as we get closer to the date. In the meantime, I’d love to see you at the US Flash on the Beach in Miami in April!
I believe it would be helpful to spend more time on variables, arrays, loops, functions and conditional statements.
These basics are where many beginners seem to have difficulty in real world projects.
I would at least double or even triple the length and comprehensiveness of Chapter2.
This would provide a solid foundation for the more advanced chapters.
A chapter on methods for constructing creative/unusual site navigation/interfaces would be very helpful.
The traditional leftnav/topnav paradigms often used in HTML/CSS layouts are usually eschewed by Flash designers as being too staid.
This would also be a good place to introduce methods for implementing a “liquid GUI”.
A chapter devoted to performance optimization.
The chapter that explains design patterns is not comprehensive enough to be truly useful to a beginner.
(I seriously doubt this chapter receives much attention from your readers)
I would post this content entirely on the companion site, and provide a reference to it at the end of the book.
My last observation is probably the highest on my personal priority list:
Reference books are often more useful if they are “spiral/coil-bound”, so they open fully and stay that way while the reader’s hands are busy typing.
Thanks,
Byron