The book I’ve been working on, The Essential Guide to Open Source Flash Development, is now out in stores. It’s hard to believe that I started working on it about 11 months ago! It’s really great to see all of that hard work finally in print.
So What is it about?
The book does a few things. First, about a third of the book introduces you to some open source tools for doing flash development. Things like FlashDevelop, MTASC, SwfMill, ANT, and ASDT. It’ll show you how to create an AS2 and an AS3 based flash application using completely free and open software. This goes all the way from installing the tools, creating a sample app, writing up some unit tests for it, and then to publishing it to the web. Along the way it’ll give you a brief introduction to each tool, explain what it does, and then give a quick example of how to use it. (That’s the 5 chapters I wrote)
The remaining 2/3 of the book dedicates a chapter to various open source projects going into a little more detail about them. There’s a chapter on Papervision 3D, SWX, FUSE/Go, HAXE, AMFPHP, two for Red5 and a couple more.
This was a lot of fun to work on, and my only regret is not getting to know the other authors better.
If you’re looking for a place to buy it, check out Bookpool. I worked for them for a year and they’re really stellar guys. They offer good prices, but more importantly; as long as the book is in stock, they do their damndest to get it on a truck the day you order it. (Of course, you’re at the mercy of the publisher if it’s out of stock)
Hi Marc,
Congrats on getting the book out! Just ordered it off Amazon (Bookpool was going to charge me $40 something for delivery to Australia!!). Looking forward to getting my hands on it!
Thanks Zu! (And thanks anyone else who buys a copy!)
Hope you like it, feel free to leave any feedback on it.
p.s. I’m planning an Australia/New Zealand vacation for the fall, can’t wait to see your side of the world.