Development Any good Flash MX 2004 Books?

Discussion in 'Software' started by OneSeventeen, 11 Feb 2004.

  1. OneSeventeen

    OneSeventeen Oooh Shiny!

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    I'm looking to learn a ton of Flash MX 2004 (just went broke buying software!:eeek:), especially Action Scripting, and I'd prefer a little PHP intraction in the book as well (although I'm also 'broadening my horizons' by learning asp soon, but that's another thread).

    I've just bought books before based on bookstore reviews, and they aren't worth pants, not even nice pants, so I thought I'd ask the "programmers of bit" (as shakspeare once wrote... or was that me?).

    Any favorites? I don't mind buying a Flash MX book, but I'd prefer a 2004, to make me feel like it was worth me shelling out the $$ :p.
     
  2. OneSeventeen

    OneSeventeen Oooh Shiny!

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    being the goof that I am I went out & bought Flash MX Advanced (a "visual quickpro guide" which is MUCH better than that "do anything with flash mx" book I saw)
    The problem, you guessed it, no 2004.
    I realized the only Flash MX 2004 books on shelf are ones that weren't written well. Sure there are supposedly good ones, like the Flash MX 2004 bible, but because it is so good, it isn't on the shelf... so all thats left are the crap books that got released early (because they didn't really update it for 2004) or the ones that nobody wanted to buy.

    This book wasn't bad because it actually has everything I'm looking for, and I guess you can't ask for much more than that, eh?


    I picked up one MX 2004 book, but in the section on preloading, it showed a progress bar with a percent complete indicator and animation going in the background as an example, but all it explained in the book was how to tell how many frames have loaded, so you can make it wait until it gets to a certain point to start playing. (this was well and good, but don't give an amazing example saying "many good sites do this" and then turn around and tell me how to do what the crappy sites do!) I guess thats why it was still on the shelf, huh?

    I'm still open to suggestions, since I got the non-2004 book, and because I intend to become fluent over the next year in Flash, PHP, and *shudder* ASP.

    (No, the shudder isn't because ASP is bad, neccessarily, its just that so far I've designed to get stuff done, not to fill a resume, and since most secure web servers run *NIX, learning ASP will be difficult/pointless for me, other than to satisfy a potential employer one day.)
     
  3. batsman

    batsman the quiet one

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    snap i've got that book, it's one of the better one's and most of the stuff is the same or similar in MX & MX 2004, obviously 2004 adds a lot of extra stuff thats not in the book.

    as far as action script goes i would recomend getting the action script reffrence guide from the macromedia website, its a pdf and is basicly the help but in pdf, i printed mine out and is very good for quick thumb refrence.
     
  4. flashcurd

    flashcurd What's a Dremel?

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    If you have bought FlashMX 2004 then you will a book written for mx 2004 because their are some major differences in the actionscript over previous versions of Flash. Actionscript in Flash MX 2004 is now called ActionScript 2.0. All previous versions of Flash (including Flash MX) use ActionScript 1.0.
    The main differences in the Actionscript are with the object orientated model. Theres some good articles over at macromedia.com about the changes between ActionScript 1.0 and 2.0
     
  5. batsman

    batsman the quiet one

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    been looking around at books over the weekend as I'm getting some ASP books, saw some good flash one's either

    Macromedia Flash MX Designers ActionScript Reference
    or
    ActionScript for Flash MX: The Definitive Guide

    both you can get form amazon
     
  6. shibli75

    shibli75 What's a Dremel?

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    Flash MX 2004 CBT .. HOT DEAL

    :clap: For Sale !!

    Lynda.com series Learning Flash MX 2004 (with actionscript basics) 2 CDROM.. price only $20 (original price approx. $150)

    also Lynda.com series Learning Actionscript 2.0 1CDROM..price only $10

    contact me at: shibli_2000@hotmail.com

    CDROM training is much faster than book or online training...you can learn at your own pace..so think about it and don't miss this chance. :thumb:
     

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