Paperback: 880 pages
Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (July 13, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0470602287
ISBN-13: 978-0470602287
Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 1.8 x 9.3 inches
Shipping Weight: 2.9 pounds
Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #1,895,561 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #97 in Books > Computers & Technology > Digital Audio, Video & Photography > Adobe > Adobe Flash #887 in Books > Computers & Technology > Digital Audio, Video & Photography > Video Production #3476 in Books > Computers & Technology > Programming > Graphics & Multimedia
It is true this is not a book for people who want to learn to program. Programming is a seperate and significant skill that many people learn in a semester or two at college (which is where I teach it). It is possible to "pick up ActionScript" but it isn't easy. What this book does do, is provide a comprehensive guide to the many elements of ActionScript. The explanations are readable. Anyone willing to work through the examples can develop a clear and often deep understanding of the material. But that is just the catch. No one learns to program by reading a single book and without writing a lot of code -- even if it is copied. At least I know of no one who has and I know a lot of programmers.Learning to program ActionScript is like learning to speak French. You have to do it... a lot. And the more you do it, the better you get. Malcolm Gladwell suggests in his book Outliers, that to be a really good programmer takes about 10,000 hours of practice. He is probably right.If you do want to learn to program with ActionScript, you'll need more than one book. First you'll need a book by a competent artist or designer to guide you through all the non ActionScript elements of Flash. There are lots of those elements and they are much too powerful and sophisticated to expect a someone who doesn't use them daily to explain them well. Second, you'll need a book like ActionScript 3.0 Game Programming University which, while weak in terms of explaining basic programming concepts and missing a useful index, has a fabulous collection of projects that are wonderfully explained and an author who is committed to supporting his readers.
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