A few weeks ago, I ordered Essential ActionScript 3.0 (by Colin Moock) from Amazon.com. I’m trying to pick up some new skills (i.e. Flash), and the book had mostly positive reviews.
The Good
The book was pretty easy to read, though it should be said that I have a strong background in programming. OOP programming is the same in ActionScript 3.0 as it is in C#, JavaScript or any other language — only the syntax is a slightly different.
As other reviewers have stated, the book’s rear cover states “If you have no prior programming knowledge, this book gently guides you on your journey…”. Whoever wrote that sentence is lying. Moock constantly tells you to “jump to chapter X” if you don’t understand some concept, rather than simply giving a start-to-finish explanation of the concepts in question.
That complaint aside, the thing I liked most about this book is also the thing I hate the most: the “Virtual Zoo” application.
Moock has the reader build an application called “Virtual Zoo” one piece at a time as you proceed through each chapter. Not only is this a great way to teach ActionScript 3.0 syntax, but it also reinforces the Object Oriented Programming concepts of Classes, Methods and Variables. He does a good job explaining Inheritance using this example.
The Bad
But about 2/3 of the way through Part I Moock seems to abandon the “Virtual Zoo” application. At that point, the user had built several classes and can see text in the Output window. “Virtual Zoo” has event handlers and throws exceptions. The only thing the user hasn’t really done is transition those classes to start using visual content (after all, we’re using Flash…).
Moock starts talking about Garbage Collection, the Display API, Animation and a bunch of other topics. . . but he never gives us examples using the “Virtual Zoo” application. We don’t hear anything about the “Virtual Zoo” for something like 500 pages. Then, almost magically, Moock gives us the complete “Virtual Zoo” application code which features display graphics and interactive buttons.
WTF?
Where the hell did that come from? I almost gave up hope of ever having resolution for the “Virtual Zoo”, and Moock offers a measly 1 1/2 pages of explanation for what he changed since page 274 — and every one of the classes in “Virtual Zoo” has changed.
I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I skimmed a lot of Part II and Part III, but honestly the book gets a bit dry without any real-world examples. Moock uses a bunch of crappy code snippets to illustrate this-and-that concept, but nothing that is used for more than a few pages. Like most people, I can only digest so many definitions of highly technical concepts without a good reason to use it. There are a ton of good college-level test questions in this book – but Moock didn’t continue to give clear and relevant examples to the user.
Conclusion
Overall, I rated the book a 2 out of 5 stars – and it would have been a 3 if the book wasn’t advertised toward new programmers. It’s a great book for reference, and Moock really did a fine job writing clear definitions for each concept. He just fell short of teaching us how to use them.
Finally…
One last comment: the animal on the cover is the coral snake. I’m often confused how programming books have animals on their covers, but this choice just doesn’t make sense. The coral snake is very poisonous and generally unfriendly. Is O’Reilly trying to say something about ActionScript 3.0 subconsciously?
Disclosure: I bought the book with my own money and do not work for O’Reilly (the book’s publisher). I’m writing this simply because I feel like it.
About Arthur Kay 
