Well not ALL technical book authors. I have been trying to get my
head around a flash problem today, and I spent three valuable hours,
while the deadline clock ticked away looking through books about
flash, and NOT ONE of them actually MENTIONS the version of flash it's
written for.
Oh I know why ... they want to keep on selling their book to mugs who
dont know the product doesnt match their old version of the book.
But that doesnt help me as a developer.
For example, I saw a book called "Flash and XML - A Developers Guide",
by Dov Jacobson and Jesse Jacobson. NOWHERE does it mention the
version of flash it's written for. The only way to tell it's not for
FlashMX is the screenshots in the text, which dont look like
WindowsXP, and the publish date, hidden away in the VERRY small fine
print on page viii. What use is that? How many people, thinking
XML is pretty new, and up to date, will be duped into buying the book
only to find that it's totally useless for their FlashMX because few
of the commands for FlashMX are where they used to be in Flash 5?
Part of the trouble with Flash is that every new version has commands
in a new place. I can never remember from one month's end to the
next how the hell to do anything. For example it took me 4 hours
today to produce a simple rollover effect on an object. I tried 4
different tutorials only to give up on them because either the author
of the tutorial assumed the reader had more than a passing knowledge
of the product, or it was for a different version and there was no
mention of what version it was written for. So after half an hour of
working through his tutorial I had to give it away as a waste of time
because I couldn't follow it.
The bottom line .... I've never once been able to produce anything
worthwhile in flash, aside from a simple banner.
Compatible with the other macromedia products? Common user
interface? RUBBISH!!!! IT's NOTHING like it!
[/rant mode off]
--
Cheers
Mike Kear
Windsor, NSW, Australia
AFP Webworks
http://afpwebworks.com
.com,.net,.org domains from AUD$20/Year
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