|
ActionScript 3.0 Design Patterns: Object Oriented Programming Techniques (Adobe Developer Library)
|
| List Price: | $44.99 |
| Price: | $39.31 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details |
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com
49 new or used available from $11.49
Average customer review:
Product Description
ActionScript 3.0 Design Patterns takes you step by step through the process, first by explaining how design patterns provide a clear road map for structuring code that actually makes OOP languages easier to learn and use. You then learn about various types of design patterns and construct small abstract examples before trying your hand at building full-fledged working applications outlined in the book. Topics in ActionScript 3.0 Design Patterns include:
- Key features of ActionScript 3.0 and why it became an OOP language
- OOP characteristics, such as classes, abstraction, inheritance, and polymorphism
- The benefits of using design patterns
- Creational patterns, including Factory and Singleton patterns
- Structural patterns, including Decorator, Adapter, and Composite patterns
- Behavioral patterns, including Command, Observer, Strategy, and State patterns
- Multiple design patterns, including Model-View-Controller and Symmetric Proxy designs
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #163372 in Books
- Published on: 2007-07-16
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Paperback
- 530 pages
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Customer Reviews
Worse than uninformative, it's actually mis-leading
My biggest complaint with this book is that the authors basically just took the design patterns found in Java and C++ and re-implemented them to run under ActionScript 3 (AS3). The list is comprehensive, but it's clear that the authors don't "think in AS3".
In several core ways, AS3 is very different than Java and even more so with respect to C++. For instance, the event model is baked into the language and asynchronous programming is a different style. Also, XML and XPath are native constructs in ActionScript 3, not libraries like they are in other languages. These differences (among others) imply that some of the original Gang of Four (GoF) and Java patterns manifest themselves differently and some patterns don't apply at all. There are a few places in the book where the authors use the built-in events infrastructure and few other native features, but it's clear that they don't think in AS3. It seems like they think in Java.
For instance, the observer pattern is one of the core GoF and HeadFirst patterns. However, the native event capability in AS3 serves the same purpose. Rather than show you how/why to use the native event capability, this book happily shows you an AS3 translation of the GoF/HeadFirst observer pattern and never tells you to use the built-in event capability instead. In contrast, the Joey Lott and Danny Patterson book from Adobe Press, does not have a section on the observer pattern, but there is a chapter on "WORKING WITH EVENTS".
The above problem would be enough for me to recommend that you not buy this book but it gets worse. This book is not even great at teaching you how to think in design patterns. To be fair, neither is the original GoF design patterns book nor is the Lott/Patterson book. The best book for this purpose is the HeadFirst book. Its examples are Java but, the HeadFirst book walks you through application evolution which really makes the case for why the patterns are useful. The HeadFirst book also includes exercises and discussion as well as a quirky style that really make the concepts sink in so you learn to recognize when to use each pattern.
If you are an AS3 programmer who is already familiar with design patterns, just get the Lott/Patterson book. If you are new to design patterns, get the HeadFirst book AND the Lott/Patterson book.
Who edited this book?
The concepts in this book are great for any Actionscript developer and they thoroughly explain solutions via design patterns. I'd recommend this book to any aspiring AS3 developer.
HOWEVER, there is so many horrible mistakes in this book. While the content is awesome, it seems like the editor was plastered when he put this little job together. In Chapter 7, it is almost unbearable. Words are omitted, code is omitted, sections are re-pasted into the book often... it's utterly horrible. I keep finding myself getting upset trying to read this book because so much is left out and so much is repeated identically on the next page!!!
All in all, if you're interested in learning Design Patterns (and they are very useful) buy this book. The content is great, the editor should be fired from the universe.
Impressive resource on Design Patterns for ActionScript 3.0
I've been reading through O'Reilly's "ActionScript 3.0 Design Patterns: Object Oriented Programming Techniques" by William Sanders and Chandima Cumaranatunge for the last few weeks and have to say its an incredibly useful resource.
The interesting thing is that this book approaches design patterns in the more traditional sense, not dumbing down on the object-oriented terminology. In that sense it is very approachable to those coming from a Java or C background and are looking for ActionScript 3.0 implementations of specific patterns.
Full review at: [...]
