While this book will likely be very useful for those new to programming, a Learning Actionscript 3.0 Part II if you will, it is not at all what I've come to expect from an O'Reilly technical reference: invaluability. Missing from Essential ActionScript 3.0 is a reference section which would have made this book a constant companion during development of a project in Flash/ActionScript.
See David Flanagan's JavaScript: the Definitive Guide, any edition, for a near perfect example of "Essential." See Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington's Perl Cookbook for an astonishing example of a book that contains the exact snippet of code one needs to keep project development moving forward. And if it's in there, that snippet is easily found within minutes. Those two books are right here next to me because eight years later I still use them. That's "essential."
On the other hand, see Colin Moock's Essential ActionScript 3.0 for implementation of a virtual zoo class, extending a virtual pet class, if that suits your needs.
The author repeatedly instructs his readers to consult the online ActionScript 3.0 reference or Flash IDE Help Viewer for information about specific object properties and methods, so I have taken his advice and abandoned the book, consulting Adobe's online material instead. If only that was in book form!
To summarize, if one is already comfortable with ECMAScript, upon which both JavaScript and ActionScript are based, Essential ActionScript 3.0 will not seem all that essential. And lacking an always necessary reference section, a must for any object oriented language, the book will gather dust.
But those who are unfamiliar with JavaScript and would benefit from a general overview of ActionScript rather than a specific reference may find this book instructive. But after that, you're going to need an ActionScript object reference. It's not here.
As for me, using Flash and ActionScript for the first time for a specific project, I found this book entirely useless and an incredible disappointment. This is a first for me. I've got about 30 or 40 well worn O'Reilly books that I continue to get good use out of.
My copy of Essential ActionScript 3.0 will probably end up on co-worker's desk or in a box of disused books. Nevertheless, O'Reilly is still the first place I look when I need a reference.
|
