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Very detailed and well organized book.This is a must to have reference for any action script developer.
Of course, I really did not understand how this approach is better than interfaces, it is something AS supports and you must understand if you are doing AS and that this book competently explains.There is information available on the internet on AS, but you will come nowhere near to how much you will really learn from this book. Although I am familiar with namespaces in Java and C++, this book really takes namespaces to the next level and talks about how program flow can be modified using dynamic namespaces. This book covers interesting twists even in the most banal of topics, like iterating arrays.
It sticks to true O'reilly style and there is not an ounce of fluff in this massive book. If you are brand new to programming understand that this is not a simple script learning book - it digs into dynamically modifying object behavior at run time, that is not even supported in Java and C#.The first part of the book deals with core AS - the usual stuff - control structures, functions etc. This is hands down the best book on ActionScript.
But beware - if you are new to AS, do not skip anything in this book. Even beyond AS, it takes your OOD understanding to the next level and deals with concepts that will help you understand advanced JavaScript (Prototypes, function enclosures etc).This book is worth its weight in gold. This book is meant for Beginners to ActionScript, not beginners to Object Oriented Programming.
If you have a background in Java (and/or Swing), you will love this book because a lot of UI programming in AS is similar to Swing (the Observer pattern, the layout managers etc are similar).
Conversely, "Programming ActionScript 3.0" is not only much better in how it steps into and through the content, but also much stronger in its coverage. Given I respect the distinction between books for beginners vs. for experts, the reason I'm bothering to return to score this book poorly, is how Moock presents the content as if his exposition represents a good set of stepping stones for a beginner to walk up - which I strongly feel it is not. As a fluent developer in C++ and Java, when I asked an informed friend for pointer on getting going with the 'world of flash stuffs,' he pointed me to this book. PS - even now, past the basics, between the two, I still always make "Programming ActionScript 3.0" where to look first for how to do anything, not "Essential ActionScript 3.0" Instead, use the official guide "Programming ActionScript 3.0," which is a sizeable pdf freely downloadable from Adobe (google the phrase in quotes to get the link). I feel that was in error. Moock's attempts to be 'tool independent' in his presentation, which creates pain for the learner, as it's generally unclear (till the very end) how to run any of the examples he seems to be so carefully building up.
For me, besides having access to great explanations about how actionscript works, which is something you will not find anywhere else, this book helped a lot to improve the way I was writing my code - and I am not a developer, just a nosy designer. It is, as the title says, essential. No matter if you are new to actionscript 3.0 or a experienced developer - you have to have and read this book. It's simple like that.
For starters, the book is definitely not geared for beginners. The explanation of ActionScript's syntax is excellent. I've been programming for more than 10 years so I had no problems understanding the content. Furthermore, he constantly tells the reader to "jump to chapter X" if you don't understand something.
The definitions are clear. Moock has you building a "Virtual Zoo" application as you go through each chapter, adding new features to the application with each new concept.but then he abandons the whole "Virtual Zoo" application as you enter the second and third parts of the book. Instead, he has about 1 1/2 pages telling you what he added, gives you the code, and expects you to figure out what the hell he did.I'll be honest and say that I had to skim most of the second and third parts of the book. But because there's little reference to real-world application (again, in the later chapters) they're just hard to digest without slamming your head against a desk.If the book weren't advertised as a beginner's book, I would have given it 3 stars. With no reference to the "Virtual Zoo" application and crappy, non-real-world examples the later chapters are pretty dry.On a positive note, Moock does an excellent job explaining the details of each class he discusses. The author jumps into concepts that beginners won't understand.
There is an appendix at the end of the book which offers the full application code, but it would have been awesome if Moock continued to illustrate how to use each concept in the context of building this application. It's a nice reference book for ActionScript 3.0 -- but I've learned more in a few days of searching Google than I did from the final 2/3 of this book. but be warned if this is your first programming book. As a result, Moock totally failed at giving a start-to-finish explanation of programming (regardless of language).I'd say that the first 1/3 of the book is pretty well done.
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