On Dec. 1st I received my copy of ‘Creating Visual Experiences with Flex 3.0‘, by Juan Sanchez and Andy McIntosh (2009 Pearson Education Inc). I am a bit of a book fanatic, and find that books are my best resource, but lately there has been a glut of Flex and Air books to hit the market so I was a little skeptical about an AFFB (another freaking flex book). Then I read this book, actually the entire book in 3 1/2 days. All I have to say is… “freaking brilliant.” This is not AFFB.
What Colin Moock is to ActionScript, and Eric Meyer to CSS, Juan Sanchez and Andy McIntosh are to Styling and Skinning of Flex. The book is very well thought out and organized. The book takes you through the process of creating visual experiences in a manner that is easy to digest but not so over simplified that it loses it’s punch.
The book is broken into key sections: Introduction (actually worth reading), The Flex Framework, Beyond Flex (discusses the component kit), and Exercises. The reader can quickly begin to understand that the authors are experienced in actually doing this type of work, and they show it with very useful tips and notes that supplement the content. The content itself is written in an easy to digest format that builds upon itself and allows the reader to begin thinking about what they have read as well as what is coming next.
What I personally enjoyed about this book is how the authors did not interrupt the flow of the Framework section by inserting the exercise code. This approach gave the reader a feeling of being able to actually read the book without having to sit at a computer. This approach gave me ample time to delve into the topic and digest the contents without having to jump into an exercise. This approach should be a road map that other technical books follow.
The exercise section was well written and if you follow the exercises you will find success. The exercises were well thought out and help the reader understand the process/work flow to complete a task. They were not a lesson in regurgitation of code from book to screen.
I could not recommend any other book over ‘Creating Visual Experiences with Flex 3.0′ for understanding the styling and visual approach to Flex. This is book is absolutely top dog in the category. If you are a Flex developer then this is one book you must have on your shelf.
Kudos to Juan Sanchez and Andy McIntosh for putting out an instant staple for Flex developers.