Advanced ActionScript 3 with Design Patterns

Today's ActionScript-based applications require increasingly sophisticated architectures and code. This book aids intermediate and advanced ActionScript developers in  learning how to plan and build applications more effectively. You'll learn how to apply design patterns as solutions to common programming scenarios. Beyond a reference, Advanced ActionScript with Design Patterns is a practical guide complete with sample mini-applications illustrating each design pattern.

Table of Contents:

Part I - Successful Projects
1. How to Design Applications
   
2. Programming to Interfaces
   
Part II - Patterns

3. MVC
   
4. Singleton
   
5. Factory (Abstract Factory and Factory Method)
   
6. Proxy
   
7. Iterator
   
8. Composite
   
9. Decorator
   
10. Command
   
11. Memento
   
12. State
   
Part III - Advanced ActionScript Topics

13. Working with Events
   
14. Sending and Loading Data
   
15. E4X (XML)
   
16. Regular Expressions




User review
good, but too many typos
This book presents may interesting design approaches for OOP programming.

Two pitfalls - too many typos (including throughout the code excerpts), and not enough examples. The novice or intermediate programmer may not be able to debug the code printed in the book.

Otherwise, this book is good for programmers looking for more flexibility and fresh approaches for their code.

User review
My TOP recommendation for learning design patterns
This book is very easy to read and understand. I was able to read it in my spare time in a week. The authors do a great job of taking design pattern concepts, no matter how complex and breaking them down to something easily understood. It's best to have at least a basic understanding of programming concepts to get the most out of this book, but it explains a lot so users can learn a lot starting from a more basic level than a lot of other books.

After reading the book, I was excited to put the topics to good use and have had better code ever since. A lot of the topics can easily be used in languages other than ActionScript 3 too.

I am the manager of the Seattle Flex User Group and when asked for a recommendation on a book to improve someones coding abilities, I always recommend this book first.

User review
Gem amongst coal,,.
One of the best out there on ActionScript. You do need to know the basics and have worked with Flash/AS for quite some time though, before picking up this esteemed novel.

I primarily use the MVC pattern, but this book really goes to town, with patterns for previous state storage (Command, Momento), to creating an Event Dispatcher interface, as well as offering a thorough discussion on regular expressions and the perfunctory interface. The Composite pattern for example, although applied to file systems, could easily be applied to inventories and other recursive data structures.

An interesting thought arising from reading this book, is combining a Proxy pattern with a Decorator. Some unique optimisation techniques are definitely worth some experimentation.

User review
Muy bueno
Es un muy buen libro, pero si necesitas tener conocimientos basicos de AS3, asi como de POO, ya que el libro va dirigo a gente ya con algo de experiencia programando, porque el libro va directo a solucionar problemas por medio de los patrones de diseño.

User review
More than just an actionscript book
I am not a programmer. I simply wanted to learn more about OOP using actionscript 3. I thought that with these principles, I can apply it to any project whether it be a little application, or a full-blown game.

I saw a lot of postive reviews for this book so I thought I would give it a try. It is definitely written by programmers, due to the fact that everything is class and object oriented - which is what I wanted.

I have read a few different actionscript books, and this one is the most in depth and complex one I have ever read. While most other actionscript books stop at giving basic functionality of classes, packages, and designing programs, this book really focuses in on the design and analysis aspect. It really gives a lot of thought and explanation as to `why` things are done.

This title definitely earns the title `advanced` in my book. While that might sound scary, it really isn't meant to deter people that understand how object oriented programming works.

I have read about half of the book so far, and what I have gotten the most information about is when and why to use certain classes, designing interfaces, and creating scalable, flexible project from the ground up.

In all of the examples on the patterns, it really explains why and how important encapsulation and modularity are when designing larger programs.

Bottom line: For wanting to learn more about OOP and desiging flexible applications, this is a great book. I have a much better understanding of the relationships between classes. Knowing how to design and develop larger applications can save hours.