ActionScript 3.0 Design Patterns: Object Oriented Programming Techniques

I bought this book when I wanted to pick up on Design Patterns in AS3 (I had little to no experience with DP in AS2), and after I read "Essential ActionScript 3.0". I bought it without reading any reviews because I like O'reilly books, but after I placed the order, I looked at the reviews, and noticed that people were favoring "Advanced ActionScript 3 with Design Patterns" (by Joey Lott and Danny Patterson) -- so I went to the closest B & N and picked it up a day before the O'reilly one arrived, so I was able to compare. I must say that I liked the O'reilly book by FAR over the other one, mostly because of the detailed and extensive examples, descriptive copy and easy-to-follow real-life samples (even though the author referred to Gnarls Barkley as a person at one point.. haha). So - for someone like me, who knew AS3 (the books assumes you do), but wanted to get into OOP with Design Patters, this was an excellent choice. I would highly recommend it.

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: [...]

College-level and specialty computer libraries covering web development will find William Sanders & Chandima Cumaranatunge's ActionScript 3.0 Design Patterns an excellent acquisition, covering common problems in Flash and Flex applications and providing developers with the tools necessary to adopt superior design patterns. From key components of ActionScript 3.0 and its characteristics to the benefits of developing both structural and behavioral patterns, ACTIONSCRIPT 3.0 is a pick for any advanced programmer's library.

This book is a solid resource for developers who want to fully embrace OOP concepts in their Flash and Flex projects. With examples based on traditional GoF patterns, the authors demonstrate the use of OOP specifically for ActionScript 3 development. For someone like me, who's just getting their head around AS3 and large-scale RIAs, this book is invaluable. It starts out with a good introduction to OOP, helping to familiarize those who are just getting started or who don't quite think in OOP terms just yet, with the over-arching principles. With AS getting closer and closer to Java structure, this introduction is especially helpful for AS developers. For those already comfortable thinking in OOP-terms, you may want to skip this section and dive into the meat of the book, which is quite substantial. Each chapter addresses a specific design pattern, analyzes it's structure and benefits, and provides both an abstract example and real-world examples. This not only gives you the full understanding of the pattern, but also gives you an idea of how to implement it in your projects. This makes this book both a great overall OOP reference, but also a practical one. If you are familiar with OOP, or just wrapping your head around it, I highly recommend this book to take your Flash and Flex projects to the next level.

This book tackles the rather advanced topic of writing reusable OOP code for ActionScript 3.0 targeting intermediate ActionScript developers. The book organizes its topics in a way similar to the book "Design Patterns Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software" by Erich Gamma et al - also known as the Gang of Four. In spite of its target audience, the first part of the book contains an introduction to both design patterns and object orientation to assist those readers with minimal object-oriented programming experience. More advanced users may want to skip the review of OOP, but go over the materials on design patterns. Parts II, III and IV are the three major parts of the book. They examine fundamental design patterns, and organize the patterns into creational, structural and behavioral categories. Representative design patterns are included in each part, but every single design pattern from the book by Gamma and his associates is not included since these other patterns are not very relevant to ActionScript, plus Gamma's book is considered the definitive reference on the subject. Each chapter on design patterns is organized in a similar matter both to clarify understanding the purpose of a design pattern and how to use it and to make the book more uniform and therefore well-suited as a reference. The following is the basic outline of each of the chapters on design patterns: 1. What is the pattern? 2. Key features of the pattern 3. The formal model of the pattern including a class diagram 4. Key OOP concepts found in the pattern 5. Minimalist abstract example 6. Applied examples You will need either Flash CS3 or Flex 2 to work with the program examples in this book. All the applications were developed in Flash IDE, so Flex 2 developers will need to make modifications, especially where certain features were developed using Flash drawing tools and components. A few examples use Flash Media Server 2 (FMS2). Thoe examples can be created using the Developer's version of FMS2 that you can download from Adobe. You will need either a Windows or Linux OS to run Flash Media Server 2. Otherwise, you can skip the examples with FMS2 if you like and not lose much. The following is the detailed table of contents: Part I. CONSTANT CHANGE 1. Object-Oriented Programming, Design Patterns, and ActionScript 3.0 The Pleasure of Doing Something Well OOP Basics Abstraction Encapsulation Inheritance Polymorphism Principles of Design Pattern Development Program to Interfaces over Implementations Favor Composition Maintenance and Extensibility Planning Your Application Plan: It Ain't You Babe Part II. CREATIONAL PATTERNS 2. Factory Method Pattern What Is the Factory Method Pattern? Abstract Classes in ActionScript 3.0 Minimalist Example Hiding the Product Classes Example: Print Shop Extended Example: Color Printing Key OOP Concepts Used in th