Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition
Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • Mandatory reading for developing on the Web
  • Good content, poor binding
  • Simple--Concise--Easy to Read
  • Not just for beginners-- a must have for website designers
  • Impress your clients
Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition
Steve Krug
Manufacturer: New Riders Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0321344758

Amazon.com

Usability design is one of the most important--yet often least attractive--tasks for a Web developer. In Don't Make Me Think, author Steve Krug lightens up the subject with good humor and excellent, to-the-point examples.

The title of the book is its chief personal design premise. All of the tips, techniques, and examples presented revolve around users being able to surf merrily through a well-designed site with minimal cognitive strain. Readers will quickly come to agree with many of the book's assumptions, such as "We don't read pages--we scan them" and "We don't figure out how things work--we muddle through." Coming to grips with such hard facts sets the stage for Web design that then produces topnotch sites.

Using an attractive mix of full-color screen shots, cute cartoons and diagrams, and informative sidebars, the book keeps your attention and drives home some crucial points. Much of the content is devoted to proper use of conventions and content layout, and the "before and after" examples are superb. Topics such as the wise use of rollovers and usability testing are covered using a consistently practical approach.

This is the type of book you can blow through in a couple of evenings. But despite its conciseness, it will give you an expert's ability to judge Web design. You'll never form a first impression of a site in the same way again. --Stephen W. Plain

Topics covered:

Book Description

Five years and more than 100,000 copies after it was first published, it's hard to imagine anyone working in Web design who hasn't read Steve Krug's "instant classic" on Web usability, but people are still discovering it every day. In this second edition, Steve adds three new chapters in the same style as the original: wry and entertaining, yet loaded with insights and practical advice for novice and veteran alike. Don't be surprised if it completely changes the way you think about Web design.

Three New Chapters!

"I thought usability was the enemy of design until I read the first edition of this book. Don't Make Me Think! showed me how to put myself in the position of the person who uses my site. After reading it over a couple of hours and putting its ideas to work for the past five years, I can say it has done more to improve my abilities as a Web designer than any other book.

In this second edition, Steve Krug adds essential ammunition for those whose bosses, clients, stakeholders, and marketing managers insist on doing the wrong thing. If you design, write, program, own, or manage Web sites, you must read this book." -- Jeffrey Zeldman, author of Designing with Web Standards


Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Mandatory reading for developing on the Web.......2007-09-28

As it promises, Steve Krug's Don't Make Me Think: 2nd Edition, is a quick, but extremely usable, guide to Web usability and design. The book took me less than a day to read (less than 3 hours), but has become, in my mind, a requirement for even beginners (like myself) of Web design. Since everyone who develops for the Web should have some idea of design and usability, this book should really be a mandatory requirement for said work.

In short, there's no reason not to read this book if you're developing for the Web (writing content, programming, etcetera), or working with a team that does so.

4 out of 5 stars Good content, poor binding.......2007-09-27

Others have said that Krug's book (2nd edition) is for those with little experience. That is exactly why I found it so useful. There are lots of concepts that are common sense, sure. But until they were pointed out I had not even considered them. His point about the usefulness of tabs was particularly useful to me. I am creating a site now and will incorporate them into my design.

My only complaint is with the binding. The book was so poorly produced that pages began to loosen and fall out before I was finished with the first reading. I am now looking for a big rubber band to hold everything together. I just hate it when that happens.

5 out of 5 stars Simple--Concise--Easy to Read.......2007-09-27

As an owner of two online businesses I found this book to clarify and outline what most owners and developers fail to understand...which is usability / navigation of their sites..this book nails it. A must read for anyone involved in managing of paying for a web site. JLW.

5 out of 5 stars Not just for beginners-- a must have for website designers.......2007-09-26

It's a good sign when a usability expert's book is highly usable, and so this one is-- a fast read, very scannable, makes substantive points quickly, then follows them up with illustrative examples and lots of nice graphs and pictures. I've seen a couple people here comment that this book is only for beginners, but given the state of MOST sites that I find on the web (yes, this includes e-commerce sites and big brand sites that OUGHT to be very usable), I'd say this book is for ALL LEVELS OF WEB DESIGNERS. Consider it your basic reference for features that every site ought to have in order to be usable and marketable. Also, its a handy source to show to your boss/client when they want to do something silly with their site design-- it's highly quotable and is written to appeal to a business audience.

5 out of 5 stars Impress your clients.......2007-09-16

Steve walks the talk with this beautifully laid out and wonderfully structured book about usability. This book is perfect for anyone who wants to understand how real people use the internet, indeed, how real people read just about anything. Steve provides lots of great examples you can use with clients who want a beautiful website design but have no idea that some of their choices will turn their customers off. This book is amusing and very easy to read - it's the best book on web usability I've found.
Head First Design Patterns (Head First)
Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • Love it or Hate it and I hate it
  • Excellent learning style
  • Theory AND Practicality!
  • A good choice
  • Exceptional good book
Head First Design Patterns (Head First)
Elisabeth Freeman , Eric Freeman , Bert Bates , and Kathy Sierra
Manufacturer: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0596007124

Book Description

You're not alone.

At any given moment, somewhere in the world someone struggles with the same software design problems you have. You know you don't want to reinvent the wheel (or worse, a flat tire), so you look to Design Patterns--the lessons learned by those who've faced the same problems. With Design Patterns, you get to take advantage of the best practices and experience of others, so that you can spend your time on...something else. Something more challenging. Something more complex. Something more fun.

You want to learn about the patterns that matter--why to use them, when to use them, how to use them (and when NOT to use them). But you don't just want to see how patterns look in a book, you want to know how they look "in the wild". In their native environment. In other words, in real world applications. You also want to learn how patterns are used in the Java API, and how to exploit Java's built-in pattern support in your own code.

You want to learn the real OO design principles and why everything your boss told you about inheritance might be wrong (and what to do instead). You want to learn how those principles will help the next time you're up a creek without a design pattern.

Most importantly, you want to learn the "secret language" of Design Patterns so that you can hold your own with your co-worker (and impress cocktail party guests) when he casually mentions his stunningly clever use of Command, Facade, Proxy, and Factory in between sips of a martini. You'll easily counter with your deep understanding of why Singleton isn't as simple as it sounds, how the Factory is so often misunderstood, or on the real relationship between Decorator, Facade and Adapter.

With Head First Design Patterns, you'll avoid the embarrassment of thinking Decorator is something from the "Trading Spaces" show. Best of all, in a way that won't put you to sleep! We think your time is too important (and too short) to spend it struggling with academic texts.

If you've read a Head First book, you know what to expect--a visually rich format designed for the way your brain works. Using the latest research in neurobiology, cognitive science, and learning theory, Head First Design Patterns will load patterns into your brain in a way that sticks. In a way that lets you put them to work immediately. In a way that makes you better at solving software design problems, and better at speaking the language of patterns with others on your team.

Customer Reviews:

1 out of 5 stars Love it or Hate it and I hate it.......2007-10-03

I just felt the strong urge to write a review. I usually don't write reviews. My opinion about this book is either you will love it a lot or hate it to the core. I hated it. Their writing style is not conventional. So please go to a book store and read a few pages and see if you like this style of writing. Even though when I first read, I thought I liked it, I realized I don't like this style of writing for a technical book

4 out of 5 stars Excellent learning style.......2007-09-26

I think the book is great for learning what it was written to teach. I found it easy to read and stay in its pages for a longer period of time. If you've read computer related books you know what I'm talking about. I would definitely recommend this book if you ware getting into design patterns and want to get a rock solid foundation. One consideration though, you really need to know something about Java or C#. If you are completely unfamiliar with OOP languages altogether, you might want to tackle that subject before this one.

5 out of 5 stars Theory AND Practicality!.......2007-09-25

I flipped through this book to get a feel for how it will differ from other design patterns works. I immediately realized that the authors are taking a very accessible approach to teaching readers about patterns.

On an individual basis, the text is very accessible. It is written in an easy-to-read style. Instead of avoiding technical jargon, the text improves understanding and retention by coupling technical terms with humorous anecdotes and quips. This approach gives the feeling that design patterns are within reach (and they are) of even readers new to the concepts. It also serves as a built-in mnemonic tool.

The structure of pattern delivery seems to be intentional as well. In the rare case where a pattern is referenced without yet being described, it is almost always in the context of how the current pattern will prove useful in other scenarios. As such, the reader never feels lost. In fact, quite the opposite affect occurs. Readers should feel like they are following a logical approach to learning patterns.

Although it may seem, from the above comments, that the book is elementary, I assure you that even seasoned developers will find the book useful. Even if you know the material extremely well, you may find that the authors' descriptions are useful when teaching junior developers on your teams.

The book layout, like the rest of the book, is broad-reaching. Obviously, it is an instructional work. More than that, however, the book is also a teaching tool. It can easily be adapted by educators and trainers for classroom-style and one-on-one teaching. The book also serves as a workbook. There are exercises and notes pages throughout each chapter. Finally, the book serves me as a reference work as well. If I remember the gist of a pattern but not the specifics, it is easy to find examples and canonical references.

I absolutely love this style. I highly recommend this book for anyone wanting to learn patterns, refresh their existing patterns knowledge, or just take in a proverbial "breath of fresh air" to the stiff writing style of other books covering complex topics. I also feel that any of the "Head First" books are worth consideration. They provide accessible formats that promote learning.

I have to close this review by concurring with the authors in their note to the "Gang of Four". Seriously, when are we going to see another book? :)

4 out of 5 stars A good choice.......2007-09-18

If you are working, if you don't have too much time to invert in learning, or if you feel that leraning something new is very difficult for you, then this book may help you. When i started reading it, the book traped me, and all that stuff (that the book does) to keep your atention focused works.

The book says on the first pages that there will be repeated things, with the purpose of helping you to GET the concepts, and not forGET them later. Besides that trick, there are other aids and ideas to achieve that (text written very near -or inside- images, exercises and more).

5 out of 5 stars Exceptional good book.......2007-08-16

This is the first ever technical book I could not stop reading as much as I can...
Agile Web Development with Rails, 2nd Edition
Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • Clear as water
  • Agile Web Development
  • Beyond great: best book, best reference, best index (and funny)
  • Great new edition of a fine book
  • Excellent, Thorough and Easy
Agile Web Development with Rails, 2nd Edition
Dave Thomas , David Hansson , Leon Breedt , Mike Clark , James Duncan Davidson , Justin Gehtland , and Andreas Schwarz
Manufacturer: Pragmatic Bookshelf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0977616630

Book Description

The definitive, Jolt-award winning guide to learning and using Rails is now in its Second Edition. Rails is a new approach to web-based application development that enables developers to create full-featured, sophisticated web-based applications using less code and less effort. Now programmers can get the job done right and still leave work on time.

NEW IN THE SECOND EDITION: The book has been updated to take advantage of all the new Rails 1.2 features. The sample application uses migrations, Ajax, features a REST interface, and illustrates new Rails features. There are new chapters on migrations, active support, active record, and action controller (including the new resources-based routing). The Web 2.0 and Deployment chapters have been completely rewritten to reflect the latest thinking. Now you can learn which environments are best for your style application, and see how Capistrano makes managing your site simple. All the remaining chapters have been extensively updated. Finally, hundreds of comments from readers of the first edition have been incorporated, making this book simply the best available.

Rails is a full-stack, open source web framework that enables you to create full-featured, sophisticated web-based applications with a twist...you can create a full Rails application using less code than the setup XML you'd need just to configure some other frameworks.

With this book, you'll learn how to use Rails Active Record to connect business objects and database tables. No more painful object-relational mapping. Just create your business objects and let Rails do the rest. You'll learn how to use the Action Pack framework to route incoming requests and render pages using easy-to-write templates and components. See how to exploit the Rails service frameworks to send emails, talk to web services, and interact dynamically with JavaScript applications running in the browser (the "Ajax" architecture).

You'll see how easy it is to deploy Rails. You'll be writing applications that work with your favorite database (MySQL, Oracle, Postgres, and more) in no time at all.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Clear as water.......2007-09-27

This book is a really good inversion if you plan to start you "RoR" experience, the way the book is written is very clear and in a good order, so you can understand better what's going on as you go along.

Great book!

5 out of 5 stars Agile Web Development.......2007-09-27

Great book to start off with. Has a good tutorial on building a shopping cart application. Then one can learn from that to develop a application that is unique for their business.

5 out of 5 stars Beyond great: best book, best reference, best index (and funny).......2007-09-19

I am an oldster (you know, 40+) and have learned many a language. Kernigan and Ritchie wrote their "K & R" C-language book in some written language a little higher level than English. After 40 or 50 reads through, I got it. I read C++ books, SmallTalk, Delphi, Visual Basic, and many Java books, HTML, JavaScript, CSS, Awk, Emacs, REXX (!!), and just about everything O'Reily has ever published.

Now, I come to Ruby, and Ruby on Rails. Thank goodness for this book. What a relief to read a book that is 1) comprehensive, 2) practical, 3) accurate, 4) funny at times, and 5) above all, has a good index! Perhaps programming languages are (finally) getting easier to write about, but Dave Thomas is an outstanding technical writer: he knows his audience and writes for us. Look, I know a million programming languages, but I am not the kind of person who zips through a book and suddenly gets it. Most books are written by people who are experts in the nuances, but have forgotten the many steps that lead up to those nuances.

AWDWR is better. It starts with a non-trivial and complete tutorial -- the first half of the book is an application that manages to hit most of the critical aspects of actually doing the job. It is a reasonably broad application covering many points of real webapps. (I read through thinking, yeah, we managed to deal with that in our Java webapp in a month, and here it is, built in to Rails, and better ... more than once). Maybe it is Rails, which seems to be a significant step in maturity over current generations (my last was WebWork/Struts 2, which seems to be the best you can do with Java these days, but really only one part of the larger problem).

But I have to give great respect to Dave Thomas and the other great writers who all made this second edition book a great, great book. I could follow along when reading, I actually did the whole tutorial and found myself learning almost all the way through typing the examples in by hand (mostly by learning how to debug my typos and understanding how the language and framework responded). Now that we're writing our real software, we still look back at the tutorial to get a clear view of how all the parts fit together.

The second part of the book is a solid documentation of the components and APIs available. It is not complete, but nor should it be -- if you want the API, link to the Rails site API. It does cover the important points, however, and ties them back to the tutorial where appropriate. Various important aspects are covered in enough detail to get the idea across, but not so much as to be just a lexicon.

I can't recommend this book highly enough. If this is your first programming book, it will be a struggle, but less than most, and if you're a professional software engineer with one or two languages under your belt (and reasonable proficiency at the command line), you will find this a great reference for learning, and for doing.

5 out of 5 stars Great new edition of a fine book.......2007-09-06

If you have the first edition of this book, you REALLY need to get this edition, since some of the recommended ways to do things have changed. Even some of the ways to get the first sample applications up and running have changed a bit. To be sure, the changes are for the better. The first edition of this book helped me to get my first Ruby on Rails app up and running and this one makes it easier.

5 out of 5 stars Excellent, Thorough and Easy.......2007-08-23

This book, for me, was fantastic! Real world examples for the win! I am still not finished with this book, only half-way through it but, I have to say I have never been as excited about a book than I am about this one.

The very beginning chapters get a functional website application up and running called Depot (an on line book store) and they do this in such a way that you don't have to know the Ruby language (no, it's not scaffolding). As long as you can understand how gears work and fit together and that one turns clockwise and another turns counter clockwise, I don't think you'll have a problem.

With that being said, without knowing Ruby, you may be able to get by on making your own application from scratch but, it will be very rough. The purpose of this book is to teach you about Rails, not Ruby.

My recommendation is, read this book first, before a Ruby book. That way, seeing the Ruby code will be much easier to take in after you see how it works in Rails and to syntax used. Do NOT skimp on learning Ruby after you read this book! You will be sorry! There are TONS more to learn just by learning the language itself. There is more than one way to skin a cat and by learning the rest of the language, you will be more empowered to figure out problems on your own.

The only problem I had with this book was that, in the middle of chapter 5, it skipped back to chapter 3 and finished out chapter 5, chapter 6 and half of chapter 7 was missing. This is the printer's fault, not Amazon's or Pragmatic Programmer's fault. If you happen to get a messed up book, don't contact Amazon, it takes forever. Instead, I contacted Pragmatic Programmer via email and let them know of the situation and to my surprise, they sent me a brand new book still in plastic, priority mail which took about 2 days to get to me! I was just expecting maybe the missing chapters in PDF format but, this shows a lot of character on the part of the company (Pragmatic Programmers). My email was responded to in less than 45 seconds after I hit the "send" button. I would like to offer much praise to the company for this!

If you are a PHP developer, there is another framework that has been modeled after Ruby on Rails called CakePHP. It is fairly new and under heavy development but, the basic principals are the same. The only reason I am plugging them here is, without having learned this framework, I don't think I would have thought about looking at Ruby on Rails. For a super quick breakdown of how MVC pattern works. Be aware that Ruby on Rails is much easier. I think this is due to the nature of PHP and not the framework itself. The devs try their hardest to make it easy for you.

I guess I don't have anything else to say about this except, if you do buy this book, you will not be disappointed.
Programming WCF Services (Programming)
Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • A Must Have!
  • Great book on a big subject
  • Easy to understand
  • A "Must-Have" Book for Programming WCF
  • Learn WCF the right way instead of piecmealing sub-standard techniques from bloggers.
Programming WCF Services (Programming)
Juval Lowy
Manufacturer: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0596526997

Book Description

Written by Microsoft software legend Juval Lowy, Programming WCF Services is the authoritative introduction to Microsoft's new, and some say revolutionary, unified platform for developing service-oriented applications (SOA) on Windows. Relentlessly practical, the book delivers insight, not documentation, to teach developers what they need to know to build the next generation of SOAs.



After explaining the advantages of service-orientation for application design and teaching the basics of how to develop SOAs using WCF, the book shows how you can take advantage of built-in features such as service hosting, instance management, asynchronous calls, synchronization, reliability, transaction management, disconnected queued calls and security to build best in class applications. Programming WCF Services focuses on the rationale behind particular design decisions, often shedding light on poorly-documented and little-understood aspects of SOA development. Developers and architects will learn not only the "how" of WCF programming, but also relevant design guidelines, best practices, and pitfalls. Original techniques and utilities provided by the author throughout the book go well beyond anything that can be found in conventional sources.



Based on experience and insight gained while taking part in the strategic design of WCF and working with the team that implemented it, Programming WCF Services provides experienced working professionals with the definitive work on WCF. Not only will this book make you a WCF expert, it will make you a better software engineer. It's the Rosetta Stone of WCF.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars A Must Have!.......2007-10-01

Excellent book, it covers every thing you need to know about WCF. Have in mid that this book is not for begginers

5 out of 5 stars Great book on a big subject.......2007-09-05

Arguably, WCF is the most revolutionary development in current software trends. It may change completely technological landscape developers live and work in since the appearance of .NET platform.
Juval Lowy (once again!) has written an extraordinary book. Seemingly he has an absolute and complete knowledge on the subject.
What strikes me even more, is how carefull and lovingly Juval leads the reader through the forest of technical details to the deep and solid understanding of both underlying technology and practical implementation of WCF.
If after hours of reading you suddenly feel lost, all you have to do is go back half a page and you are on track again.
I just wish I had such a wonderfull teacher every time I have to learn something new.

5 out of 5 stars Easy to understand.......2007-09-03

Juval writes like a real educator. Where other books fails to explain in simple terms, Juval Löwy is very easy to understand. His book has a wonderful layout, which makes it easy to find what your are looking for.
Thank Juval.

5 out of 5 stars A "Must-Have" Book for Programming WCF.......2007-08-30

If you are going to use WCF in your enterprise applications, then this is the book you want to buy. We are converting our .NET 1.1 web services over to WCF and find this book to be absolutely essential. This is the stuff you can't glean from Internet posts. A truly irreplaceable knowledge builder and reference tool.

5 out of 5 stars Learn WCF the right way instead of piecmealing sub-standard techniques from bloggers........2007-08-28

I'm part of a middleware group and we are migrating to WCF. This book was just technical enough, concise and it has been very helpful in several cases. It's gotten me started and helped fill in the details where I needed it. Probably my favorite part, was the astute and very well reasoned description of Service-Orientation in Appendix A.

You're not going to waste your time reading fluff like so many other books.
CSS Mastery: Advanced Web Standards Solutions
Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • Fantastic real-world solutions
  • Andy's Professional Perspective: Priceless
  • CSS Takes Practice
  • Gives you control and keeps you standards-compliant
  • A 7 stars book :)
CSS Mastery: Advanced Web Standards Solutions
Andy Budd , Simon Collison , and Cameron Moll
Manufacturer: friends of ED
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1590596145

Book Description

This book is your indispensable guide to cutting-edge CSS developmentall you need to work your way up to CSS professional. You'll learn how to: While CSS is a relatively simple technology to learn, it is a difficult one to master. When you first start developing sites using CSS, you will come across all kinds of infuriating browser bugs and inconsistencies. It sometimes feels like there are a million and one different techniques to master, spread across a bewildering array of websites. The range of possibilities seems endless and makes for a steep and daunting learning curve. By bringing all of the latest tips, tricks, and techniques together in one handy reference, this book demystifies the secrets of CSS and makes the journey to CSS mastery as simple and painless as possible. While most books concentrate on basic skills, this one is different, assuming that you already know the basics and why you should be using CSS in your work, and concentrating mainly on advanced techniques. It begins with a brief recap of CSS fundamentals such as the importance of meaningful markup, how to structure and maintain your code, and how the CSS layout model really works. With the basics out of the way, each subsequent chapter details a particular aspect of CSS-based design. Through a series of easy-to-follow tutorials, you will learn practical CSS techniques you can immediately start using in your daily work. Browser inconsistencies are the thorn in most CSS developers' sides, so we have dedicated two whole chapters to CSS hacks, filters, and bug fixing, as well as looking at image replacement; professional link, form, and list styling; pure CSS layouts; and much more. All of these techniques are then put into practice in two beautifully designed case studies, written by two of the world's best CSS designers, Simon Collison and Cameron Moll. Summary of Contents:

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Fantastic real-world solutions.......2007-10-03

I had originally thumbed through this book, subtitled "Advanced Web Standard Solutions" in my local bookstore and shrugged it off as covering pretty much most of what I'd already digested from other popular CSS books. It wasn't until a friend showed me some cool techniques from the book that I properly read though it and regretted not buying it sooner!

Though it's aimed at the intermediate web designer, it is well written and I would certainly recommend this as an essential buy for all web designers. The book begins with Clear:Left's Andy Budd provides most of the content starting with a chapter about well-structured and meaningful mark-up. It's these best practices that will help catapult you into the realms of CSS Master! It then recaps on the box model, positioning and floats, making it easy for a beginner to pick up this book and run with it, before moving into the techniques, with clear and concise examples, including a couple of good chapters on bugs and hacks.

The final two chapters are where Simon Collison & Cameron Moll step in to demonstrate these examples in two real-world showcase websites. This book is absolutely the best book currently on offer for CSS web design.

5 out of 5 stars Andy's Professional Perspective: Priceless.......2007-09-29

I am a quick-fix guy. If I run into a problem with my website I look for the 1st script, code, or hack that best fits my problem, then customize it accordingly. Andy is a professional. He is less concerned about the quick-fix than he is about proper code usage and browser compatiblity on a long-term scale. If you are very concerned about the latter, browser compatibility, then this book is for you.

However, be aware, this book was published prior to the release of Internet Explorer 7. So although Andy goes indepth about the compatibility quirks of IE 6 he fails to cover IE 7. The good news is that IE 7 seems to have patched up some of those IE 6 quirks, so if you take Andy's advice and use the standards compliant CSS then you should have no problem adapting your website to more and more standards compliant browsers.

This book also gives some previews of yet-to-be-released CSS 3 as well as proper HTML and XHTML use.

Finally, as an amateur CSS programmer, I felt, before I read this book, that I was not utilizing CSS to its max. My stylesheets were limited to simple layout and typography tags. This book fully explained professional techniques that truly harness the power of CSS.

4 out of 5 stars CSS Takes Practice.......2007-09-28

I found this book to be really helpful, mainly because of its clarity and simplicity. I've yet to do the 2 Case Studies included, but I intend to because reading this book has shown me that you can only master this information by doing it. Andy Budd, Simon Collison, et al, do a great job of giving you good examples to implement.

While this book has not (nor any other source, so far) answered all of my questions in one fell swoop, it has given me a much clearer overall understanding of what I'm dealing with, allowing me to come up with better questions and strategies for solving problems that come up in making a web page work across popular browsers. I highly recommend it.

5 out of 5 stars Gives you control and keeps you standards-compliant.......2007-09-12

Ever tried to tame a 'stubborn' page; Where an element seems to have a mind of its own? If yes, then, Welcome to CSS Mastery.

Do you depend on Javascript to do routine formatting and menu mapping stuff? You need CSS Mastery

Need an effective common set of css methods that work on most browsers? Buy this book and you won't regret it.

Think you still need tables to help with page layouts? Read this book and think again.

Of all the good stuff I see in this book, the most intriguing for me is that HTML can actually be elegant and clean. This is mainly because Andy hand-holds you along a path of logical brevity to 'HTML-reborn': A place where HTML is allowed to do just its originally intended work of semantic markup; Where CSS controls layout and style in an inherently factorable, inheritable and maintainable way.

And hey! Make sure you read Chapters 4,5 and 7, especially.

5 out of 5 stars A 7 stars book :).......2007-08-27

I have read a few css books, not all but few. For now I can only say this is the best book I've read about CSS and generaly computers. Now I'm reading pro css techniques and that book is not nearly good as css mastery even though some people say that this books are almost same.
If you want to learn modern and advanced css on easy way this should be your first choice.
Dreamweaver 8: The Missing Manual
Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • Helping me start my own business
  • Dreamweaver-Missing Manual
  • This is THE Dreamweaver book
  • Thank god for this book.
  • Definitely a Keeper
Dreamweaver 8: The Missing Manual
David Sawyer McFarland
Manufacturer: Pogue Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0596100566

Book Description

Available for both the Mac and Windows, Macromedia's Dreamweaver 8 is a professional web design and development program used by millions of Internet professionals to build high-quality static and dynamic database-driven web sites. It offers drag-and-drop simplicity, streamlined HTML coding tools, and powerful database integration features. But Dreamweaver 8 is missing one vital component: a printed manual.

Enter Dreamweaver 8: The Missing Manual, the completely revised fourth edition of this bestselling book by experienced web site trainer, Macromedia Certified instructor, and Dreamweaver Advisory Council member David McFarland. This book enables both first-time and experienced web designers to create visually stunning and highly interactive web sites.

With crystal-clear writing and much welcome humor, this new edition offers features such as:

No matter what your level of expertise is, you'll also learn how to manage your entire web site-whether you've just launched or if it's been around for awhile and takes up thousands of pages. Beginners with no web design experience will appreciate the step-by-step guide to designing, organizing, building, and deploying a web site; long-time Dreamweaver users will appreciate the advanced, real-world techniques for controlling the appearance of their web pages with CSS.

With more than 500 illustrations, a handcrafted index, and the clarity of thought that has made bestsellers of every Missing Manual to date, this is the ultimate atlas for the complex and powerful Dreamweaver 8.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Helping me start my own business.......2007-09-16

This manual has helped me catch up on the entire web design movement with Cascading Style Sheets that I need to brush up on. As an owner of my own graphic design business, I needed to refresh my skills on Dreamweaver 8 and this manual with its easy-to-follow tutorials and sense of humor sprinkled throughout certainly helped me do that. David Sawyer McFarland helps you each step of the way. Definitely recommended.

4 out of 5 stars Dreamweaver-Missing Manual.......2007-09-04

This book works through every aspect of the Dreamweaver program, but is still a bit difficult to understand unless you are an experienced website creator.

5 out of 5 stars This is THE Dreamweaver book.......2007-08-20

I went through every book review, then checked out all the books at the local Book Superstore and ended up getting this, although I wondered why it only had 4.5 stars.
It is the perfect book for DW8 and fully deserves 5 full stars! I had been using DW4 for five years and it is nice that this book is both understandable and not over simplified.

5 out of 5 stars Thank god for this book........2007-07-21

I've never taken the time to review anything on the web before and have always been amazed by the numbers of people who do. That being said, I had to tell people how much I love this book. The last site I designed was a tiny static site back in 2001 using golive and I recently committed to building two database sites. I went though many, many books + tutorials and none are as good as this one. [...].

5 out of 5 stars Definitely a Keeper.......2007-07-10

I very seldom take the time to write reviews, and usually do so to warn people away from an awful book. This is the exception; I loved this book.

To give some perspective to my review, I am a professional programmer but a complete "newbie" to web design and development. I've taken on the task of creating and maintaining a web site for a local summer swim team. I needed help and I needed it quickly.

My first stop was "Macromeda Dreamweaver 8" by Short and Green. This is a good book for beginners to get their feet wet with Dreamweaver 8. However, after doing all the exercises, I did not get the feeling that I actually could design a nice web page and knew for sure that I couldn't create a form with a working submit button.

Then I bought this book, "Dreamweaver 8 The Missing Manual". The first few chapters cover the basic building blocks of using text, images and links. The next section deals with how to design a web page; first using tables and then using CSS. Other sections of the book deal with forms and how to set up Dreamweaver to manage your remote site and a testing site. (I find it much easier to let Dreamweaver figure out what files are out of date rather than use a stand-alone FTP program.) The last section of the book deals with dynamic web pages and was the answer to my quest for a functioning "submit" button on my web forms. This section is what sealed the 5-star rating for me. The book's tutorials use the ASP server model, but you can download equivalent tutorials for PHP/MySQL from the author's web site. I found all the tutorials to work (and I did almost every single one), but do check the author's errata page.

For you programmers out there who are getting into the web, this book mostly stays with the Dreamweaver wizards and does not delve into code view (probably a good thing for the non-programmers). If you are into coding and PHP, a good next step is "PHP for Dreamweaver 8", by David Powers. The Powers book covers a lot of the same dynamic web ground as "The Missing Manual", but is not afraid to dive into code view.

All in all, I was very happy with "Dreamweaver 8 The Missing Manual". It's a big book packed with information, but easy to read. Based on what I've learned, I was able to create a decently attractive web site, some very useful forms and private areas for team administrators and coaches.
Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 Hands-On Training
Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
  • Dreamweaver
  • Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 Hands-On Training
  • Great starter guide
  • The best DW book ever
  • Easy to follow along book and cd combo
Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 Hands-On Training
Daniel Short , and Garo Green
Manufacturer: Peachpit Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0321293894

Book Description

Do you like to learn by doing? Do manuals leave you bored and craving real-world examples? Do you want concrete training that goes beyond theory and reference materials? If so, this book is for you.

These hands-on exercises, complete with insider tips and detailed illustrations, teach you the latest techniques for designing Web sites with Dreamweaver 8. You’ll learn to define a Web site; layout pages effectively with Cascading Style sheets; use tables; create rollovers; work with templates, media objects, and forms; and design for mobile devices. You’ll also learn how to use the new features in Dreamweaver 8, including the new Unified CSS Panel, the Style Rendering Toolbar, the Code Toolbar, guides, CSS Layout visualization, Zoom, and Code Collapse. Accompanied by a CD-ROM loaded with classroom-proven exercises and QuickTime training videos, this book ensures you'll master the key features of Dreamweaver 8 in no time.

Customer Reviews:

4 out of 5 stars Dreamweaver.......2007-10-01

This book was okay, but it seemed to be basic things you could learn just by looking around a little bit. I was hoping for more indepth things to help me in my confusing class taught by someone who mumbles and can't speak English. Instead, I found myself still basically teaching myself. I recommend this book for any new beginner, someone who has trouble finding things on their own. It was helpful in some ways, but was not everything I was looking for.

5 out of 5 stars Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 Hands-On Training.......2007-08-26

I am taking a web design class at City College of San Francisco : Developing websites using Macromedia 8. The text book used in this class is this book. I have found this book extremely helpful to understand the lecture given by the instructor in the class.

After having worked on a few charpters in this book, I have an impression that this book may even help those people who do not have time to take a class to learn about developing and designing a web page by solely using this book because of its Hands-On-Training feature. My experiences of working on this book tell me that the first two chapters are essential for successfully working on this book and the users of this book should spend more time on the first two chapters.

5 out of 5 stars Great starter guide.......2007-07-17

I'm new to Dreamweaver and found this an excellent place to start. The tutorials are easy to follow and the book is clearly written.

5 out of 5 stars The best DW book ever.......2007-07-05

This is not reference book but it's a great quick start to the program. All exercises are divided by chapters, so you have to do #1 through the end to complete and cannot start halfway in the chapter. This book was very easy to use for me because of familiarity with other graphic layout programs and interfaces, so you should obtain some other manual if it looks mind boggling. Basically throughout the book you are "building" a website for a pseudo company that sells tea and tea things. But you are given files in each chapter missing only the things that you need to learn instead of starting out with a blank page each time. Also you are asked to do things multiple ways either in the interface or what is technically appropriate (Page properties vs CSS). Great intro to CSS, it takes a few chapters after completing the CSS chapter to really get the hang of it: you even get to learn how to build a nice rollover navigation. The videos are great too, they show some additional techniques.

5 out of 5 stars Easy to follow along book and cd combo.......2007-07-04

I was taking an entry-level course on DW 8 at the community college and they listed this book as the required text book. I have no idea why, because the instructor never referred to it and just did his own thing. But I have learned more from the book on my own than I did from the class. Of special merit are the video tutorials that come on the cd. As you complete the exercises in each chapter, there is supplementary related material presented in video form on the cd.

The only problem is that you learn to build the particular tea-selling website that is being built in the book. While 75% of the materials is either applicable or of possible interest, there is still this 25% gap of knowledge that leaves you stranded when you are faced with the prospect of staring at a blank project of your own and putting your own content in it. I may know how to insert the file that the author created from his folder to his page, but how do I create my own file to insert in my own page?

[..]

There is no substitute for hands-on experience, and I have obviously not been gifted with intuitive knowledge of web principles. I constantly manage to get myself into situations where what I do just plain doesn't work, but no book (or library of books) can prepare you for the challenges you will face trying to implement your own ideas in the real world. But this one comes fairly close.
MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-528): Microsoft  .NET Framework 2.0 Web-Based Client Development (Pro Certification)
Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
  • Very concise reference material
  • The book teaches you how to make professional web sites.
  • 2 many authors.
  • Passed First Time, but . . .
  • Definitely NOT ENOUGH.
MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-528): Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Web-Based Client Development (Pro Certification)
Glenn Johnson , and Tony Northrup
Manufacturer: Microsoft Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0735623341

Book Description

Get in-depth preparation for Exam 70-526, an exam for the new MCTS: .NET Framework 2.0 Windows Application certificationand build real-world job skills. Includes test questions, reviews, troubleshooting labs, an exam discount, and more.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Very concise reference material.......2007-10-05

This book is very well organized and contains most of the material needed to pass the exam. It is a great reference book for development as well.

4 out of 5 stars The book teaches you how to make professional web sites........2007-09-09

Before writing of this review I have read some rumours about the book. Some people say it does not cover all the details for the exam itself. Again as with 70-536 Training Kit from the same set I have found out that the contrary is true. It is a very good book that concentrates on main aspects of .NET web development. Even a beginner after reading the book is able to use EVERY important functionality. Of course if you are a professional you have to study and develop yourself your .NET web applications at least in order to confirm and assure what you have learned. Again the book is very self-motivating. Probably that is also the main reason why some in-depth details are missing at right places and moments. The book has all you need to master the technology and exam itself.

3 out of 5 stars 2 many authors........2007-09-04

This review is about the unfortunate disparity in abilities of the 2 authors: Glenn Johnson and Tony Northrup.
Johnson is a nice surprise to those who read microsoft training manuals. He anticipates reader's problems and never leaves you frustrated.
Northrup is the opposite. His chapters are irritatingly lacking in necessary examples and thorough explanations. You cannot avoid the notion that he is taking the easy way out. At times I believe I can hear his X-Box 360 running in the background
In chapter 9, lesson 3 on using WebParts, he admonishes the reader that its up to him to spring ahead many pages to some of the labs at the end of the lesson. He doesn't bother to provide enough of an explanation to do you any good. Mr. Johnson, again, provides both immediate examples and labs.
This is typical.
I don't see how you can avoid being frustrated by this. Carefully crafted explanations followed immediately by examples is the norm. Johnson takes of this, Northrup leaves you constantly throwing your hands up.
I am learning quite a bit, however. You can master much of the elements of Net 2.0 using this book. Be prepared to do additional online research of Mr. Northrups chapters, however.

5 out of 5 stars Passed First Time, but . . ........2007-08-16

I used the book as my principle but not sole source of study material, and I was able to pass the exam today the first time I took it.

The book covers all the * topics * on the exam, but the book alone will not help you to pass.

I credit these factors:
1. Reading the book
2. Doing the lab exercises and case scenarios, especially if it's a topic you're not familiar with.
3. Taking the practice exams on the CD - then clicking the More Info links - you do need to read the info on the MSDN site.
4. Having experience with ASP.NET - I don't see how you can pass without work experience, unless you make lucky guesses

Also, if you come across a question that totally stumps you, just try to reason through it, don't make a blind guess.

4 out of 5 stars Definitely NOT ENOUGH........2007-08-01

I will agree with the other reviewer who said that this book alone is NOT enough to pass the test.

After deciding to take the exam, I searched high and low for books and this was the only 70-528 prep book I could find. I got this book and spent months going over it and taking the practice exams. I could easily pass the practice exam questions before I went in and felt like I had a good grasp of the material. Another reviewer said that they passed the exam despite the fact that they failed the practice exam, and I honestly do not know how they could have passed. Based on co-worker's comparison of the this book and the practice exams for test 70-536, I decided to go in and take the test.

Let me tell you, the book does NOT go into enough detail in either the examples/text/lessons OR the practice exam. I managed to barely pass the exam by the skin of my teeth.. mostly using this book as a basis and all my on the job experience as a supplement. Unless you are a hands on developer with a fair amount of job experience to back you, just using this book to prepare is NOT going to be enough.

Do yourself a favor and have a very thorough grasp on the material or be prepared to throw the money away.
Professional Ajax, 2nd Edition (Programmer to Programmer)
Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • Not Happy
  • Very well written. Excellent resource.
  • powerful handbook
  • excellent in several respects
  • Surprisingly easy to read for a programming book
Professional Ajax, 2nd Edition (Programmer to Programmer)
Nicholas C. Zakas , Jeremy McPeak , and Joe Fawcett
Manufacturer: Wrox
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0470109491

Book Description

Professional Ajax 2nd Edition provides a developer-level tutorial of Ajax techniques, patterns, and use cases. The book begins by exploring the roots of Ajax, covering how the evolution of the web and new technologies directly led to the development of Ajax techniques. A detailed discussion of how frames, JavaScript, cookies, XML, and XMLHttp requests (XHR) related to Ajax is included. After this introduction, the book moves on to cover the implementation of specific Ajax techniques. Request brokers such as hidden frames, dynamic iframes, and XHR are compared and contrasted, explaining when one method should be used over another. To make this discussion clearer, a brief overview of HTTP requests and responses is included.

Once a basic understanding of the various request types is discussed, the book moves on to provide in-depth examples of how and when to use Ajax in a web site or web application. Different data transmission formats, including plain text, HTML, XML, and JSON are discussed for their advantages and disadvantages. Also included is a discussion on web services and how they may be used to perform Ajax techniques. Next, more complex topics are covered. A chapter introducing a request management framework explores how to manage all of the requests inside of an Ajax application. Ajax debugging techniques are also discussed.

The last part of the book walks through the creation of two full-fledged Ajax web applications. The first, FooReader.NET, is an Ajax-powered RSS reader. The second, called AjaxMail, is an Ajax-enabled email system. Both of these applications incorporate many of the techniques discussed throughout the book.

Professional Ajax 2nd edition is written for Web application developers looking to enhance the usability of their web sites and web applications and intermediate JavaScript developers looking to further understand the language. Readers should have familiarity with XML, XSLT, Web Services, PHP or C#, HTML, CSS. This book is not aimed at beginners without a basic understanding of the aforementioned technologies. Also, a good understanding of JavaScript is vitally important to understanding this book. Those readers without such knowledge should instead refer to books such as Beginning JavaScript, Second Edition (Wrox, 2004, ISBN: 978-0-7645-5587-9) and Professional JavaScript for Web Developers (Wrox, 2005, ISBN: 978-0-7645-7908-0).

Professional Ajax 2nd edition adds nearly 200 pages of new and expanded coverage compared to the first edition. Some of the new topics covered here include:

And of course the Second Edition retains and updates the core first edition content including:

This book is also available as part of the 4-book JavaScript and Ajax Wrox Box (ISBN: 0470227818). This 4-book set includes:

Customer Reviews:

2 out of 5 stars Not Happy.......2007-10-03

Wed 10/03/2007 5:15 pm. I'm not sure who writes these positive reviews, but an early example in the book ("The Hidden Frame Technique", starting on page 21) is obviously broken. The book shows "HiddenFrameExample1.htm" in an illustration but there is no such file in the ProAjax2ePHP.zip file downloaded from wrox. Judging by quotes on the internet probably from the first edition, I'd guess the actual file is probably GetCustomerData.php (?) but whether it is or not, that file has an obvious syntax error, missing paren in line 12 "if (is_numeric($sID) {". Of course if I were a php/ajax expert all this would be blindingly obvious; but I'm not, that's why I bought the book. I can't say I'm optimistic about the remainder of the text.

5 out of 5 stars Very well written. Excellent resource........2007-07-27

I'm a senior ASP.NET/Web developer with no Ajax experience. This is my first Ajax book. I wanted to learn Ajax from the ground up, not just the Microsoft controls. Our ecommerce site is very highly trafficed and there's no forgiveness for inefficiencies. This book certainly fulfilled my expectations, but it also introduced me to some new worlds of concepts that I did not expect. For instance, the chapter on Ajax Patterns: It's a new way of thinking about Web Development. I'm very impressed with its content. The book is clearly written, the examples are excellent. I am learning a great deal from this book. Nice job guys!

4 out of 5 stars powerful handbook.......2007-06-27

I really like this powerful handbook whick gives me detail tutorials in the field of AJAX practice.

5 out of 5 stars excellent in several respects.......2007-03-23

Last year (2006), I plowed through practically every available book on Ajax. This one really stands out for its excellent historical overview of how Ajax grew to exist. It also is one of the few that covers the use of hidden frames and Iframes as an Ajax technique (it has been around longer but is still used widely). The writing is outstanding. If you can only buy one Ajax book, this one should be it.

A free copy of chapter 1, "What is Ajax?" is available online at [...]

4 out of 5 stars Surprisingly easy to read for a programming book.......2007-02-20

The information you need to get started on ajax programming happens very quickly in this book. The way it is presented also helps a great deal. While it still has it's dry parts, this book was actually surprisingly easy to read(meaning I wasn't falling asleep after 5 minutes of reading)
ActionScript 3.0 Cookbook: Solutions for Flash Platform and Flex Application Developers
Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
  • The title should be FLEX ActionScript 3.0
  • A Poor Sequel to Actionscript Cookbook
  • Disappointing
  • Great book on Actionscript...
  • The end of a tunnel
ActionScript 3.0 Cookbook: Solutions for Flash Platform and Flex Application Developers
Joey Lott , Darron Schall , and Keith Peters
Manufacturer: Adobe Dev Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:
  1. Essential ActionScript 3.0 (Essential) Essential ActionScript 3.0 (Essential)
  2. Programming Flex 2: The comprehensive guide to creating rich media applications with Adobe Flex (Programming) Programming Flex 2: The comprehensive guide to creating rich media applications with Adobe Flex (Programming)
  3. Advanced ActionScript 3 with Design Patterns Advanced ActionScript 3 with Design Patterns
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  5. The Essential Guide to Flex 2 with ActionScript 3.0 The Essential Guide to Flex 2 with ActionScript 3.0

ASIN: 0596526954

Book Description

Well before Ajax and Microsoft's Windows Presentation Foundation hit the scene, Macromedia offered the first method for building web pages with the responsiveness and functionality of desktop programs with its Flash-based "Rich Internet Applications". Now, new owner Adobe is taking Flash and its powerful capabilities beyond the Web and making it a full-fledged development environment.

Rather than focus on theory, the ActionScript 3.0 Cookbook concentrates on the practical application of ActionScript, with more than 300 solutions you can use to solve a wide range of common coding dilemmas. You'll find recipes that show you how to:

Each code recipe presents the Problem, Solution, and Discussion of how you can use it in other ways or personalize it for your own needs, and why it works. You can quickly locate the recipe that most closely matches your situation and get the solution without reading the whole book to understand the underlying code. Solutions progress from short recipes for small problems to more complex scripts for thornier riddles, and the discussions offer a deeper analysis for resolving similar issues in the future, along with possible design choices and ramifications. You'll even learn how to link modular ActionScript pieces together to create rock-solid solutions for Flex 2 and Flash applications.

When you're not sure how ActionScript 3.0 works or how to approach a specific programming dilemma, you can simply pick up the book, flip to the relevant recipe(s), and quickly find the solution you're looking for.

Adobe Developer Library is a co-publishing partnership between O'Reilly Media and Adobe Systems, Inc. and is designed to produce the number one information resources for developers who use Adobe technologies. Created in 2006, the Adobe Developer Library is the official source for comprehensive learning solutions to help developers create expressive and interactive web applications that can reach virtually anyone on any platform. With top-notch books and innovative online resources covering the latest in rich Internet application development, the Adobe Developer Library offers expert training and in-depth resources, straight from the source.

Customer Reviews:

1 out of 5 stars The title should be FLEX ActionScript 3.0.......2007-09-26

I bought this book because I wanted to learn how to use AS3 over AS2. This book claims to be a ActionScript 3.0 which it is, but ONLY if you have the Flex Application.

I don't have Adobe Flex but I would like to learn ActionScript 3.0 - this is too advanced for me and the applications aren't what I thought they would be.

This book may be good for advanced users of ActionScript but for someone like me who was just getting used to ActionScript 2.0 and wants to learn how AS3 works- it's the worst book you can buy.

As much as I like O'Reilly books, I feel this book is misleading.

Novice to Advanced users may think otherwise.

1 out of 5 stars A Poor Sequel to Actionscript Cookbook.......2007-09-17

Here's an example of why this book deserves just one star (if that!):

Cre{2}l matches creel but not crel or creel

This example was taken from the section on regular expressions. There are other inaccuracies on that page. Overall, this book is riddled with inadequate, poor explanations that appear to typify the worse of IT personnel - bad communications skills. Anyone who gives this book high marks has not read the book entirely and is relying only on reputation.


Here's another example:
var example:RegExp = /(\d)abc(\d*)/;

var result:Array = example.exec( "7abc" );

// Displays: 3
trace( result.length );
// Displays: 7abc
trace( result[0] );
// Displays: 7
trace( result[1] );
// Displays:
trace( result[2] );

Notice that the last display is missing. Really sloppy work. Not convinced? Try it at your own peril.
Skip this book.

3 out of 5 stars Disappointing.......2007-09-13

I have many O'Reilly books and I sorry to say this is my first diappointment. Many of the recipies are simply slight extensions of obvious constructs that are essentially just part of the Actionscipt language rather than interesting examples of how to put Actionscript to work or clever work-arounds as can be found in, for instance, the Perl Cookbook. To take one example, the multi-dimensional array recipe pretty much rehashes the Flash documentation - an array declared at 'compile time' - rather than expanding on it and showing the less trivial example of, for instance, a dynamicaly declared array.

What is normally useful about the Cookbooks is that they are an excellent way to learn a new language for people who prefer to learn by example, deconstructing code rather than trawling through an enumeration of the elements of a language in a manual-type book. Most of the examples in this are sadly not complex enough to work this way - they're too close to a one-concept-at-a-time manual - to show you how different elements of the language can acually work together to tackle full real-world programming tasks.

5 out of 5 stars Great book on Actionscript..........2007-09-05

I've been learning Flex 2 and wanted to know a bit more about Actionscript and this book delivered! Plenty of good examples that have given me a MUCH better understanding of Actionscript. I never really learned much about Flash and so never wrote one line of Actionscript until I started to learn Flex (if you haven't heard about Flex yet go to Adobe.com and read up about it, it's pretty cool) and the books I had would show about 1/2 Actionscript and 1/2 mxml. So after getting a good understanding in mxml and basic Actionscript I wanted to learn more and this book was a big help. If you're even remotely interested in learning Actionscript this is the book to get!

5 out of 5 stars The end of a tunnel.......2007-08-04

I consider myself as an early adopter of anything in interactive communication. I founded my company Falcomedia in 1989 with only one goal: to produce interactive multimedia communication. By then only possible on Mac's with programs like Hypercard, Supercard (in color) or Macromind's Director (called Videoworks by then). I definately see AS3 as the end of a tunnel and the start of really great things to come. It's possible now, no workarounds, pure OOP and this book is basic.

Read als Keith Peter's Actionsript 3.0 Animation and let your visions flow. I can't see anything stopping us from bringing good UI, quality design, functionalty, efficient production and scalability to the next generation of the web.

Peter Bohny, Falcomedia Systems AG, Switzerland

Books:

  1. Encyclopedia of Computers and Computer History
  2. Enterprise Integration Patterns: Designing, Building, and Deploying Messaging Solutions (The Addison-Wesley Signature Series)
  3. Enterprise Messaging Using JMS and IBM(R) WebSphere(R) (IBM Press Book)
  4. Exploring Expect: A Tcl-based Toolkit for Automating Interactive Programs (Nutshell Handbooks)
  5. Exploring Interface Design (Design Exploration Series)
  6. FileMaker Pro 8: The Missing Manual
  7. Fundamentals of Neural Networks
  8. Groovy in Action
  9. Guide to Wireless Network Security
  10. Hardening Apache

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