Re: FLASH: RE: John Croteau Book ?

[Carlos Cardoso]

> Yeah, The Flash 4 manual is o.k. for beginners but there is Jack out there

> for advanced users other than downloading .fla's and disecting them...


In fact, resources for mid-level developers' are rare. 


I'm writting a Flash book myself, it's aimed to the mid-level web

designer. Make up the Flash Manual would be a dirty trick, but even if I

was the kind of writter who does it (it's not the case) There's not

enough data there. 


The manual is OK to teach VERY basic skills, but a lot of concepts

simply are NOT there. Movie Clips, Tell Target.. 


278 pages and not a single ocurrence (sp?) of the word "ActionScript".

Not even to tell the user where is the URL of Macromedia's ActionScript

online Tutorial. Ops, There is no such thing. Not even a Sintax Guide. 


I work with computer languages since 1980, so ActionScript is not

exactly hard to master. But If I was a young boy, opening my first movie

and trying to print "hello, world"... brrr.


John's tutorials are great, but he can't cover everything. Is IT

possible to live without ActionScript, but we can't design the thin

client interfaces of the 21sth century without programming some code. 


What is called "advanced" in ActionScript is basic programming skill in

a "real" programming environment. IMO, it creates a void. Real

programmers learn ActionScript too fast to feel the need of a tutorial

or book, and non-programer-oriented people use only a few resources,

lacking the time to learn to program in any language. 


The actionscript section alone in my book is 60 pages long, and growing.

Should be even bigger. Now, reading a few new threads here, I wonder if

it does not deserved an entire book. 


Someone asked about Actionscript books. I missed the answer. Is there

one? A "Actionscript for non-programmers" style book?


BTW: My books are in portuguese, so I'm NOT making an advertising here

;)


Carlos Cardoso -

cardosopobox [dot] com

==================================

www.carloscardoso.com          

Tech Writer, BOFH & Trekker

Linux Reg user # 92301 



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