FLASH: A teacher wonders why ActionScript tutorials "bite"

[Tom Green]

I had lunch today with a fellow member of this list and it quickly

degenerated into a whining session regarding ActionScrpt tutorials.


The bottom line was : Why are actionscript tutorials are generally

written for geeks by geeks?


There was even a post today that tended to overlook the fact that one of

the most common questions on this list is "Where do I learn

ActionScript"?  The post?


"The radio button script is basic and covered pretty much line-by-line

in the

above-referenced URL:

On (Press)

      Set Variable: "numChildren" = ..:numChildren

      Set Variable: "counter" = 1

      Loop While (counter <= numChildren)

            Set Variable: "arrayElement" = "..:child_" & counter

            Set Variable: "control" = Eval (arrayElement)

            Begin Tell Target (control)

                  Go to and Stop (1)

            End Tell Target

            Set Variable: "counter" = counter + 1

      End Loop

      Set Variable: "..:selected" = _target

      Go to and Stop (2)"… and so on.


If you are new to this, does this make any sense  without a clear

annotation of each line of code?


I am not attempting to crap in the nest here but my students find it

extremely difficult to learn ActionScrpting because the assumption made

is the reader already knows what it is about and how to do it. For

example, I purchased Milburn and Croteau's book because John did the the

code sections. Great explanations of what the code is all about . There

is nothing  about how to use it and there were no comprehensive

tutorials that walk the newbie through the creation process of things

like pop down menus , preloaders or Drag and Drop. Even the educational

material from Macromedia assumes a prior in depth knowledge of the

language. When the student goes looking for good tutorials on Chrissy's,

John's , Colin's and even Asmussen's sites they are confronted with a

précis of how it was done. I just wish there were tutorials that start

with :


1. Open Flash

2. Open a new document.


Get my drift? This has bugged me to the point where I have asked John if

I could "deconstruct" his Ultimate Preloader, document it and use it as

a handout for my students. John has graciously given his permission and

I have submitted my first draft to him for his comments and criticisms.

So, I am doing something about it ( apart from whining)  but ,gosh,

there could be more.


Good examples of tutorials that work are over in the Director universe.

One of the best Lingo books on the market (for the newbie) is Director

DeMystified by Jason Roberts. If you think ActionScript is tough just

wrap your mind around Director's language- Lingo. Yet Jason presents

Lingo and its concepts through a series of step by step tutorials that

clearly lay out the code and the logic behind it. His Swifty exercise

that gets into case statements, custom handlers and variables  is

absolutely brilliant and goes for a full chapter. The upshot with this

book is the student needing to code a button can reference the relevent

pages and walk through it and reproduce it. Once they have gotten

through Jason's book then they can wade through Gary Rosenweig's

Director 7 book and take what they have learned to the next level. This

just simply isn't the case over here in the Flash universe. The closest

I have ever encountered were the .pdf's from the Minister in South

Carolina over on Chrissy's site.


In fact, the Lingo code explanation revolution started when Gary

Rosenweig  saw what I am talking about and did something about it on the

Direct-L list. He posted a site that was a series of concise lessons

that walked the newbie through the language with practical, annotated

examples. Ventanna noticed and his site became his Director 5, 6, and 7

books. Each one was even better than its predecessor.


Now for my questions. Are there any sites that annotate and clearly

demonstrate Actionscript technique? If not, why not?


















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