Reviews for Official SWiSHmax Bible

1. Good structure, good reading, great resource

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, January 12th, 2005

   Well, got the Swishmax Bible. And I must say, very surprised.
   Good structure, doesn't forget about the basics, and easy to follow explanations.

   Starting off with the general GUI (which ofcourse never is wasted) you gradually get into the program. It ends with creating full sites, dynamic context, even xml with swishmax is handled.

   One thing to take into account is that this isn't a Swishscript bible, but then again, it doesn't claim it is either. Just like with Flash, one has a flash bible and an actionscript bible. This is the Swishmax Bible, and even then it does go into scripting a great deal.

   A great reference is what I think of it. And when you are accustomed to using 'bibles' this definately is what you need. Extensive, to the point, from the base up and far beyond it.
   And with excellent example, even a full template that comes with it, and for that price, that alone is worth it even.

2. Not bad, but could have been a lot better

   Rated 3 out of 5 stars, January 12th, 2005

   The book is nicely presented, but falls short in a few areas, some important, some less so. There are some good points, so please read right through my review and not just the criticisms!!

   My background is that I have used Swish2 a fair bit, but never really got expert at it. I could do quite decent animations, but never got into the complex stuff. I was hoping this book would solidify the basis I had built by playing with Swish2, and then further that with the more copmplex features, as well as the scripting and other SwishMax improvements.

   First gripe was that, having bought the book, you find you have to download a couple of hundred megabytes of files to get the samples. Why couldn't they have provided a CD? The minimal cost wouldn't have affected the cover price much, and it would have made it much easier for the purchaser.

   On a similar line, there are four chapters not included in the book. You have to download these as PDF files from the web site. Why? They could have just added more pages to the book. It wouldn't have cost much more, and the info would have been there in the book. Both of these points smack of petty cheapness, which put me off a bit before I started.

   The next problem was that she spends a tedious amount of time explaining very basic and obvious points, like how to use a menu, and what a toolbar is. Any proficient Windows user will not need to be told this, and a non-proficient one would need to learn them for other programs. This book should concentrate on SwishMax and leave Windows tutorials for wherever they belong.

   The rest of the book (when it finally gets into the meaty bits) is not bad, but lacks examples. It's all theoretical. A few hands-on examples would explain the text much better. In all fairness, she directs you to the downloaded samples and tells you to look there, but I would still have preferred some guidance on how to do things from scratch. ONe reason I bought this book was because I was frustrated at downloading samples from the SwishZone, only to find I couldn't work out how they had done the effects. This book doesn't do a fantastic job of helping.

   The chapters on scripting are fairly poor. If you don't have any experience of wrinting scripts (anywhere, not just in SwishMax), then you are going to struggle here. There's no decent language reference, and no real explanation of how it all hangs together.

   Overall the book isn't as bad as this review probably sounds. It does give you a basic idea of how the program works, but you will have to struggle a lot to get to grips with it fully. If you have never used any Swish version before, then it will certainly get you going, but you will still find yourself stuck wondering how to do certain things.

   Maybe it will motivate someone to write a better book!! Maybe the author will do some serious rewriting and produce a better second version. Either way, it's worth buying it if you can get it cheap (Amazon was selling it at about 14 UKP when I bought it, and for that price it's OK). I would have been happy to pay a bit more and get a better book though!!

3. Falls short of expectations

   Rated 1 out of 5 stars, January 12th, 2005

   I have been using SwishMax since it was first released and wanted a definitive guide to help me improve my scripting skills.

   The book starts off by explaining SwishMax from the ground up but it does not say much that you could not pick up from simply using the programme and reading the relevant sections in the help file.

   The section on scripts is ill designed, presenting little more than a list of commands without any consideration of how or when you might want to implement certain functions, or why you might want to use one method over another.

   An awkward style of writing does not help the reader's understanding of the subject. The examples given in the book are neither really useful nor inspiring.

   I also could not get some of the code in the companion website to work.

   Overall, the book is disappointing and little more than a hardcopy of the programme's help file, hampered by a ponderous style of writing.

   Wolf