FlashApe

I just got done wrapping up (for the most part) the book Flex 2 With Actionscript 3.0. Overall I thought it was a generally gentle introduction into Flex and covered a lot of basic Flex topics pretty well. Using typical Friends of ED ’show me how’ (rather than ‘read this code’) style, the book breezes through topics such as setting up creating projects, working with variables and databinding, containers and components, working with XML, states, and more.

At this point I have two main criticisms of the book, nethier of which should deter anyone considering this book. First, teh book could have used a little better technical review…or at least someone could have made sure that the code examples in the downloads for the book matched what the book was saying. Mostly it was little things, like a chapter’s project files would be all lumped in the folder when the books sample code clearly expected a different directory structure, or the supplied XML files not matching up too well with what the code in the books was showing. I also noticed one glaring instance when a function mysteriosuly switched names for no reason.

The other criticism I have is the ColdFusion slant on the book. Nothing against ColdFusion, but I don’t use it, and probably won’t, ever. Luckily there was only one chapter devoted to Flex / ColdFusion integration, so I pretty much just skipped it.

As far as the title of the book goes, it barely touches on AS3, so if you’re really looking for a deeper level of AS-MXML integration then this book might not be for you. While I don’t think this book is an ‘Essential Guide’, I definitely think it’s a great book to kick start your intro to Flex.