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Title: Flash Hacks

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Title

Flash Hacks

Category

Web design books

Author

Sham Bhangal

Publisher

O'Reilly & Associates

Release date

May 1, 2004

ISBN

0596006454

Sales ranking

Week: Not ranked All time: 135

Reviews

November 23, 2004
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Flash Hacks reviewed by
Picture of Manuel Lemos
Manuel Lemos
manuellemos.net
For many Web site developers and designers HTML based pages are frustrating because of the limitations that they impose on presentation, and the user interactivity possibilities that they provide.

Over time, more and more developers have tried to overcome such limitations using JavaScript and browser specific features and external extensions. Basically, this is in the spirit of hacking the browser.

Hacking the browser is also the expression used by Colin Moock in his foreword to the book Flash Hacks to describe the importance of the introduction of browser extensions like Flash, and how they made such a difference to the history of the Web.

Flash hacks is another release in O'Reilly's hack books series that presents exactly 100 tips, also called hacks, on how to make the most of Web browsers using Flash based sites.

The tips are divided into 12 thematic chapters that explore groups of aspects of creating and using Flash animations.

It is not possible to cover in detail each of the aspects that are covered because that would almost be like replicating the book. However, to just give an idea of what kind of aspects are touched on, the book chapter topics are about visual effects, color effects, drawing and masking, animation, 3D and physics, text, sound, user interface elements, performance and optimization, Actionscript, browser integration and security.

The book is very rich in detail and uses language that is easy to understand even by a Flash newcomer. However, it seems likely that interested readers will digest all the information contained in it very slowly precisely because it covers many aspects that are rarely used all at the same time in each animation. This is good because the book can be used for studying only the aspects that Flash developers and designers need at a given moment, without requiring the whole book to be read end to end.

{buttons}This book is thoroughly recommended to developers and designers with all levels of knowledge about Flash because it covers tips that are easy to understand and implement, as well as other tips that would not scare the advanced Flash developer and could give a useful insight on how to achieve non-trivial Flash effects. This is certainly not the only good Flash book that has been published. However it is still recommended to all readers who already have similar books because the Flash technology is so flexible and powerful that there are plenty of tips not yet mentioned in other books of this kind.

This book is thoroughly recommended to developers and designers with all levels of knowledge about Flash because it covers tips that are easy to understand and implement, as well as other tips that would not scare the advanced Flash developer and could give a useful insight on how to achieve non-trivial Flash effects. This is certainly not the only good Flash book that has been published. However it is still recommended to all readers who already have similar books because the Flash technology is so flexible and powerful that there are plenty of tips not yet mentioned in other books of this kind.
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