Dear Reader,
In the object-oriented programming world, an object is something with particular, predictable qualities. But what that means exactly is often elusive to beginning OOP programmers.
When working in the ActionScript environment, however, you can see the objects, such as movie clips. Combined with the fact that ActionScript doesn't torment authors with class path configurations and command-line compilation, it can be a very accessible way to learn the concepts of OOP--at least that is what Joey Lott advocates in his article, "Introduction to OOP in Flash and ActionScript."
Joey is the author of O'Reilly's "ActionScript Cookbook," and he really knows his stuff. If you have an interest in Flash and ActionScript authoring, and you're wondering if this is an accessible way to get your feet wet with object-oriented programming, then take a look at his article. It just might be the approach you've been waiting for.
Until next week,
-Derrick
Derrick Story
O'Reilly Network Managing Editor
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Introduction to OOP in Flash and ActionScript, Part 1
One of the greatest stumbling blocks in learning object-oriented
programming is the inherent abstractness. Enter the simplicity of
Flash and ActionScript. Joey Lott, author of ActionScript Cookbook,
offers an introduction to basic OOP with ActionScript.
QuarkXPress Comes to OS X
Quark has dominated Mac publishing for some time, but the slow
transition to the Mac OS X platform has turned out to be a
"lose/lose" situation for all concerned. But now Quark 6 is out
and running on OS X. What's it like? David Weiss puts it through
its paces and reports.
Open Directory and Active Directory, Part 2
In this second part of Michael Bartosh's series of articles
examining Mac OS X's Directory Services architecture, he looks
at access. If you haven't read part one yet, you should probably
take a look before moving on with this one.
The Factory Design Pattern
Many popular software libraries make extensive use of design
patterns so that the APIs can be abstracted out at a high level
for the end programmer. The .NET Framework Class Library (FCL)
is no exception. Given that the FCL builds on the strengths of
Microsoft's experience with developing software libraries, one
can assume that instances of design patterns found in the FCL
are fairly appropriate usages of these patterns. In this article,
Amit Goel describes some instances of a commonly occurring design
pattern in the FCL: the Factory Method design pattern.
Postfix Attack
Noel Davis looks at problems in Postfix, DB2, stunnel, OpenSSH,
up2date, eroaster, wget, xfstt, xpcd, pam-pgsql, xtokkaetama, and
Half-Life.
When Is 54 Not Equal to 54? A Look at 802.11a, b, and g Throughput
According to the model, 802.11g is significantly faster than 802.11b. In a network consisting only of 802.11g clients, it is even slightly faster than 802.11a. However, "protection" mechanisms added to 802.11g to ensure backwards compatibility with legacy 802.11b
clients can cut the throughput by 50 percent or more. Matthew Gast
explains.
Perl Design Patterns, Part 2
Phil Crow continues his series on how some popular patterns fit
into Perl programming.
Ports Tricks
One of FreeBSD's biggest benefits is its ports collection. You can
go years without learning more than just make install clean, but
there are dozens of features built into the ports tools. Dru
Lavigne demonstrates several of these tricks to simplify your life.
Behind JEMBlazer: Java on the GameBoy Advance
Java gaming, if you believe the industry buzz, is about to take
off. aJile Systems' JEMBlazer and JFlame allow developers to
write Java games for the GameBoy Advance. Howard Wen interviews
Mike Masters and Kurt Mahan, principal developers of JEMBlazer.
EXSLT for MSXML
Once thought an impossible task, MSXML now has EXSLT support,
thanks to Dimitre Novatchev. In this fascinating article, the
author explains the obstacles he overcame and how he implemented
EXSLT.
.NET Framework Essentials, 3rd Edition
Programming ColdFusion MX, 2nd Edition
Ports Tricks
One of FreeBSD's biggest benefits is its ports collection. You can
go years without learning more than just make install clean, but
there are dozens of features built into the ports tools. Dru Lavigne
demonstrates several of these tricks to simplify your life.
When Is 54 Not Equal to 54? A Look at 802.11a, b, and g Throughput
According to the model, 802.11g is significantly faster than 802.11b. In a network consisting only of 802.11g clients, it is even slightly faster than 802.11a. However, "protection" mechanisms added to 802.11g to ensure backwards compatibility with legacy 802.11b clients can cut the throughput by 50 percent or more. Matthew Gast explains.
Outboard Brains for Mac OS X
Here's a brief look at some applications designed to be digital
brain-dumps; electronic Pensieves into which you can throw any
information you want, knowing that it will still be there when
you need it later. Giles Turnbull looks at a variety of "outboard
brains" utilites and highlights their particular strengths.
Open Directory and Active Directory, Part 1
For the last number of months, Michael Bartosh has been working on
this series of articles for Mac DevCenter readers that examines
Mac OS X's Directory Services architecture in depth and explores
how to integrate these services with Microsoft's Active Directory.
This is the same topic that Michael will be discussing in person
at the O'Reilly Mac OS X Conference.
Version Control on Mac OS X, Part 2
In his first article of this series, Kevin O'Malley looked at what
version control is, its terminology, and what systems are available
under Mac OS X. Here in Part 2, he shows you one of the most popular
version control systems, CVS, on a sample project under Project
Builder.
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