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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
More Advanced Insight from Macromedia, 28 Mar 2003
I'll start off by saying that this book is not aimed at beginners. In fact, it is quite the opposite. The topics and applications covered require an advanced understanding of actionscript, and a good understanding of coldfusion, java, or asp.net. Although the text of the book mostly covers coldfusion, scripts that perform the same functions writen in the other two languages are included on the CD. Also on the CD is a demonstration version of the socket application Electroserver, and a comprehensive and highly usable actionscript object, named ElectroServerAS. This allows quick and easy development of multi-user applications, such as multiplayer games. All of the methods and properties are very well documented and explained in the second of two appendices found at end of the book, and I found myself integrating it quickly into my code design. Another topic widely covered throughout the book is the use of XML to pass information to and from server-side scripts. Numerous examples of passing XML are given, both in actionscript and the other languages. The way in which the authors have approached this, both in the script and the following explainations, makes this a very accessable area, and easy to pick up. To sum up: I have come to believe that this book aims not so much to teach, as to suggest and aid. However, that does not mean I did not learn from the book. I have gained skills that I would not have done otherwise. It is just that, since you require so much knowledge of the languages used before having a hope of being able to understand and use this book, there is very little that the book can teach you in terms of this. What it can offer is pages and pages of example code, all expertly explained, and leesons in project planning, implementation and use, which are invaluable skills. This book provided tremendous support for my ongoing projects, and I continuously refer back to it. All in all, well worth the money, and I highly recommend it.
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