Foundation ActionScript for Flash MX 2004

Rating:
Summary: An excellent book for a start with ActionScript 2.0
Review: In my opinion, this book rightfully deserves the top grade.
I need to make a statement here, that, this book does not cover the Rich Application Development part of Actionscript, which deals with embedded Data components like datagrid etc.
However, for the basic ActionScript, it explains everything that you will ever need for Flash interfaces.
A plus about the book, is that it is written by only one author and it makes the book very easy to follow. the author really knows what he mentions and he makes very good points about the subjects.

The topics are supported by short, but very nice examples which really makes a smart use of the subject mentioned. I found these short examples easier to follow and get a result.
The book has a website construction project that goes in sync with the book subjects, and a Space Invaders game deconstructed, too.

There is nothing i can criticise about the book, honestly. it is a foundation book, and i think it has everything you may want for a very good working knowledge of ActionScript and Flash in general.

As a summary, i believe this was another wonderful book from Friends of Ed Flash series. Highly recommended...

Rating:
Summary: Informative but a bit sloppy
Review: Overall I found this book helpful in taking me to the next level of ActionScript. The main project of the book from beginning to end is the building of a website called Futuremedia. This web page makes use of many cool tricks the author takes you through sep-by-step with pretty good explanations. To teach the reader how to implement these techniques, several smaller coding projects are used to introduce programming concepts that will be used in the more complex Futuremedia project. Each chapter has several of these smaller examples which is very fortunate. About halfway through the book, due probably to some sloppy editing, the Futuremedia project gets derailed by missing steps and references to earlier explanations which never made it into the text. Being that I didn't find the Futuremedia project all that interesting, I eventually abandoned working on the book's main project and concentrated on the smaller projects contained in each chapter. These are all complete.
The author's writing style is easy to follow which is the main reason I stuck with it.
If you are looking to move from simply coding buttons and simple timeline animation, this book still has some good information to offer.

Rating:
Summary: Very Useful and Interesting!
Review: The Foundation Actionscript series of books written by Sham Bhangal have been really good in teaching users the intricacies of ActionScript. The third iteration of this series, Foundation ActionScript for Flash MX 2004, is no different.

What makes this book great is Sham Bhangal's writing style. His ability to explain complicated ActionScript topics in a simple, sometimes humorous format is great for beginners to understand. He brings in interesting anecdotes and alternate explanations to help make it easy for readers to digest the information.
The book starts you off at the basics. You are introduced to basic interactivity, but you quickly progress through the various ActionScript techniques. The information is presented in a tutorial format that engages you in the learning process. You are given the opportunity to take a more hands-on approach to learning the material by writing code and testing your examples in Flash. Theorists need not worry though! There are adequate explanations as to why various ActionScript techniques work.

Besides working on the examples, you can apply what you learn by updating a site called Futuremedia as you progress through the book. As you learn more ActionScript, you are given directions to improve and update the Futuremedia site. Besides updating the Futuremedia site, Sham provides examples and directions to create a lot of cool special effects such as moving dots, a mouse trailer, a code-only clock, and more!

If you are trying to learn ActionScript for the first time, or if you are trying to brush up on your ActionScript with the new features introduced in Flash MX 2004, this book is a great choice. After going through the book and working on the examples, you will find yourself having a better understanding of the ActionScript language.

Regards,
Kirupa

Rating:
Summary: Well done for beginners, slow for programmers
Review: This book was done well for *not* programmers. I'm a relatively seasoned (6+ yrs) Java & C programmer--I found it incredibly slow.
Bhangal spends a ton of time convincing the reader that things such as "event handling" and "classes" are good. Anyone who has written a GUI for the Mac, Windows, X or Java will find a majority of the content incredibly tedious.
The last chapter on "Advanced Actionscript" starts to touch on the areas I find most valuable--specifically scope, sub-classing, the differences between AS 1.0 & 2.0. But that was really it.
Again, for non-programmers or designers (for whom I'm assuming this was designed) I think this might be a great book. Bhangal goes to great lengths to explain the "why's" of programming concepts. For programmers, I'd suggest Macromedia Press's "Flash MX Professionsl 2004 Application Development" by Jeanette Stallons.