Comments about oreilly Flash Hacks:

The book has a lot of interesting tricks, some of them are very easy and others have a lot of complex and advanced actionScript. It's very balanced in this way.

It is very detailed when it comes to follow the steps operating the program features, It seems to be explained for newbies. And this fact leads to a great contradiction, even though It explains every step of the "practical" way (for example, "To import an image go to Archive> import> import to Library" ), It never explains the codes in this way. You have a complex actionScript line and the book only tells you what it does, but It never teaches you how to use It, how to construct it, what the actionScript elements are for, etc etc etc.

If you want to think over the code to learn how to write and create your own material you need another book because It won't teach you how to understand actionScript. Maybe that's not the purpouse of this book, but I found annoying that It explains the short cuts that are easy to find anywere and It doesn't do the same with the coding part, and I think that's a big shame. I don't know what you want to achieve, but I don't want to copy/paste another people's code that when nothing works you can't fix cause you don't really understand half of it, I need to know about sintaxis, about what setInterval (); is used for and why it's being used in the example in particularly. If you don't want that, buy It because the book is good.

Comments about oreilly Flash Hacks:

Flash Hacks from O'Reilly is a great book that every Flash Designer or Developer should have in their library. The "get-to-the-point" style of the Hacks series is also very useful when you have a deadline fast approaching. There are 100 "hacks" in this book that, for the most part, are projects that can be used in your everyday Flash development.

First the bad news:

BWhile this book is full of great project that touch the surface of most problems, I found that the book could have used more in-depth examples. I also wanted a full chapter on Flash Components, which was not really covered at all. Flash is now the goto format for Rich Internet Applications because of the player market penetration, and with the need to regularly utilize components, it would have been nice to seem more information on the subject.

Now for the good news:

I choose this book mainly for the Sound and Browser Integration chapters, but I was pleasantly suprised to find more than a handful of topics that helped me develop better applications. I especially liked the chapter on Optimization along with the Color Effects chapter. Both of these chapters provided tid-bits of information that were directly related to a few projects I was working on.

Conclusion:

While there is room for improvement, I would highly recommend this book, or the next version that I assume will be coming out shortly. For the begining and intermediate Flash Developer, the hacks in this book will help you build better user experiences for your clients.

Book Rating: 8.5 / 10

Comments about oreilly Flash Hacks:

If you are like me and have a good solid base in the understanding of Flash actionscript. You often find yourself looking for books that go above and beyond basic training manuals.

This book is a refreshing look at what you can do with Flash and how to integate it with other forms of media. It opens your mind to new possibilities and gets your creative juices flowing. Best of all it reads like a novel - which is important, because sometimes training manuals can be a bit oppressive.

Very impressive!

Thank you Sham Bhangal! By the way, please make a Flash Hacks II. PLEASE!

Comments about oreilly Flash Hacks:

Sham Bhangal is undoutedly the most generous writer in the web development/design realm. I've been reading his books for awhile, but his Flash Hacks rises to the top. His style is irreverent, yet immensely helpful, and his code is rock-solid. I cannot recommend this book highly enough!

Comments about oreilly Flash Hacks:

Flash Hacks was a very pleasant surprise. I have been aware of Sham's work for quite some time now, and purchased this book on impulse at the local book store. I was not dissapointed! It is full of excellent tips- most of which I have never seen anywhere else!! Kudos to Sham, and a guarantee that his future books will be rated as "must gets"!