Flex 4 In Action – email from a reviewer
Part of writing a book with Manning Publications is they conduct reviews with pools of reviewers in order to provide feedback during various stages of book writing. It helps the author(s) know what they’re doing well at, and identify any areas that need improvement.
The responses are anonymous to the authors so that the reviewers can be candid, however one reviewer did seek us out directly (we’re easy to contact through our blogs) to give us his personal and uplifting feedback. He allowed me to share his feedback:
I finally finished reading the book and sending in the review. Your book was written extremely well and flowed very well. I learned a lot the past 8 days reading it, found Flex to be very interesting and appealing technology. Also the development seemed to be fairly easy to learn. Most programming and technology books can be boring, dull, and dry at times, while reading. Take for example trying to read the Open GL Programming book. Your book actually really kept me interested and made me really try out all the examples and see how it really works. That part helped a great deal. Also setting up a learning environment to see what your reading was very easy. In the future for any web projects I may work on, I will definitely try using Flex for it. Great book!
- Niaz Jalal
Thanks Niaz! It’s feedback like that that makes it all worth it!
Flex 4 In Action Status updates
We’re feverishly racing to wrap up the core writing!
Recent updates:
- Joel Hooks finished the core writing for Chapter 24, which covers all the techniques and tools available for debugging and testing Flex 4 applications. It now goes into internal review.
- Joel Hooks moves onto Chapter 25, which is wrapping your project up (prepping it for production, building release versions of your software, etc…)
- John C. Bland II finished core writing for Chapter 21, which covers all the goodies for adding effects to your Flex application. Not just effects for the sake of coolness, but how you can use effects to increase usability.
- John C. Bland II moves onto Chapter 22, which is doing a touch up on the Drag and Drop chapter from Flex 3 In Action.
- Dan Orlando completed a major rewrite of Chapter 20, which covers customizing the user experience which is all about themes, skins, and styling.
- We’re currently prepping an update for MEAP subscribers (Manning Early Access Program) so that they can get access to some of the updates. That should be available soon.
- We’re also conducting a final review where a collection of anonymous random techies were asked to read the book in it’s current form and provide us feedback on how we’re doing so that we can address any issues (if there are any).
Flex 3 In Action co-author on Android + ColdFusion
Faisal Abid, co-author of Flex 3 In Action, recently gave a presentation at RIAdventure on connecting an Android client to a ColdFusion back-end. You can check out the presentation here.
FxiA authors part of the 2010 Adobe Community Professionals
Today Adobe community manager Liz Frederick announced the 2010 ACP (Adobe Community Professionals) roster, and it includes your friendly neighborhood Flex 4 In Action authors Tariq Ahmed, Dan Orlando, and John C. Bland II. We look forward to earning our keep as we close in on wrapping up on the core writing of the last few chapters of the book.
See Flex 4 In Action Author at Flash Camp in PHX – Free books
Meet Flex 4 In Action author Dan Orlando as he speaks at Flash Camp Phoenix. We’re hoping to give away a few copies of the Flex 3 In Action book which includes access to the eBook version of the Flex 4 In Action book when it becomes available.
Where and When
The event will be held all day at the University of Advancing Technology (about a mile from ASU) in Tempe, AZ on January 29th from 9am to 5pm.
Speakers include:
- Ryan Stewart (Adobe)
- Sarge Sargent (Adobe)
- David Tucker (Author - Adobe AIR Cookbook, Universal Mind)
- Christian Saylor (Universal Mind)
- Dan Orlando (Author – Flex 4 in Action, Universal Mind)
- Kevin Fauth (Universal Mind)
- Dan Holth (Universal Mind)
- Carl Smith (Universal Mind)
Topics include:
- What’s new in Flex 4/Flash Builder 4
- Optimizing the Designer-Developer workflow with Flash Catalyst
- What’s coming in AIR 2.0
- 3D in Flash/Flex
- Object-Relational Mapping in AIR
- Advanced Flash video
- Flash on mobile devices
- and much more….
More info and Registration: http://flashcampphoenix.eventbrite.com/
Fri 13th sale – Flex 3 In Action for $13
Buy Flex 3 In Action for only $13 by using promo code “fri13″ when checking out at http://www.manning.com/ahmed/
Flex 4 in Action – 3 more chapters posted on MEAP
For those who subscribed to the Manning Early Access Program (aka MEAP) for Flex 4 In Action now have access to 3 more chapters.
Learn how to validate in real time user input in chapter 6, format raw data into human friendly formats in chapter 7, and get down to the nitty gritty fundamental building blocks of Flex—objects and classes—in chapter 16.
Flex 4 In Action author is featured at IBM developerWorks
Fx4iA author Dan Orlando has an article profiled as the main feature on the IBM developerWorks website:
Top 10 tips for successful Software as a Service
Discover 10 essential tips for creating Software as a Service (SaaS) applications that come in on time and under budget, yielding a positive return on investment. Use these tips to get an enlightened perspective on SaaS-based development.
Congratulations to Dan for achieving such a huge accomplishment!
Win prizes at Manning’s Pop Quiz promo
How the contest works
- There’s a new question every day. Complete the required fields and answer the question. You’ll be entered into the daily FREE ebook drawing.
- You’ll get one point just for answering the question and another point for getting the correct answer added to your total for the Grand Prize drawing
- We’ll reveal the correct answer–along with the daily winner of the free ebook–the next day
The Prizes
Grand Prize-Your choice of an Apple iPhone 3GS or an Amazon Kindle
The Grand Prize will be awarded to the contestant with the most total points.
Free Ebooks daily
Each day that you answer a question correctly, you’ll be eligible to win a free ebook of your choice. Two winners will be selected at random daily.
Daily Discounts
There’s a different special offer every day! Be sure to take advantage of the featured daily discounts throughout the Manning Pop Quiz.
Weds 50% off promotion
Manning Publications is having a one day (Weds) 50% off promotion for the upcoming Flex 4 In Action. This give you access to the early edition of the book (you get access to the draft chapters as they’re written, and then the final book when complete).
http://www.manning.com/ahmed2/
Enter promo code: twtr0729
About
Flex In Action (FiA) is a book for coders who come from traditional web technologies, and progressively takes them on a journey of understanding. Flex can easily be frustrating to newcomers who are used to the ease of their current language, so FiA takes an approach of leveraging your existing skills by using examples that you can relate to in your current tech vs how it’s done in Flex. It gradually introduces topics on an as needed basis so that you only need to worry about learning one thing at a time. Plus various ways of doing the same thing are explained in depth so that you understand your options… and lastly, FiA makes learning Flex fun!
Available on Amazon for $31.49, includes PDF versions!
