flex

Professional Adobe Flex 3 (Wrox Programmer to Programmer)
$49.99
I have a been a software developer for many years and I used many different technologies. At first I was very skeptical about an almost 1500 page computer book (anybody still remember the horrible 1500 page Java books from the late 90s ?)

But this book is written by many different authors, and so far everything I have read is well written and quite dense, sometimes I had to read it twice to get it - I like it !

I think it is a great well rounded book on Flex, and I highly recommend it. But as another reviewer pointed out, the think is heavy ! Both physically as in content.

Adobe Flex 3: Training from the Source
$59.99
As a new programmer into Flex language, I hoped to learn and later master a development of Flex application, but could not carry on with this book after going through first 13 chapters. This book is good, if you have some knowledge and experience with Flex language and you want to learn how to create advanced application. However, for beginner, it has very little value. It does not explain syntax, events and how to invoke them properly, access to controls' properties, input/output handling and error processing. Following the code without clarification does not give me a chance to learn the language properly. I believe that the scope of the chosen project is too broad for the beginners; you start with massive development and fill the blanks later. Some topics, like states and renderers are introduced too early, some other, like error handling too late. I give this book three stars, because I had learn something from it, but I will recommend starting with Learning Flex 3: Getting up to Speed with Rich Internet Applications by Alaric Cole (ISBN# 0596517327).

Programming Flex 3: The Comprehensive Guide to Creating Rich Internet Applications with Adobe Flex
$54.99
Just finished reading all 600+ pages. I have four other Flex books I've read/perused. This book is by far the best flex book WTR understanding and applying its architecture. Combine it with the "Flex 3 Bible" by Gassner and I think that's all you should need. Most programming books give you a a lot more hows, and a lot less whys. This book is all about why, not simple hows. Knowing why to do something will, long term, be of great benefit.

Also the writing in this books is exemplary. Very clear, not too wordy, not too concise, and very good use of illustrative examples. Really, really excellent. Few programming books of this length can I read and understand over the course of a day or two. Usually such books require a read thru, then re-reference. But because of the excellence of the writing, I did not find this the case here. Literally sat and read it front to back over the course of three days.

Looking at the other reviews, it appears some others have complained about examples, or thoroughness of a feature description. Again, this is a book about why you make programming decisions, not how to write the code -- get the Bible for this. IMHO, it does a pretty good job with the examples, but it is not the intent of the book. Finally, the authors end the book with a discussion of a full app they wrote accessing Flickr. The entire source code is available for download, and provides a very in-depth "example". Strongly suggest readers DL and read thru the code references the explanations the authors provide in the book.

I have read a lot of books about programming, and this is one of the best. Going back to some of my other Flex books, they seem simplistic now.

Finally, I've taken note of the two companies for which the authors work (from the book's jacket). If they contribute to these as well to these as they did the book, then might be a good investment -- notably Kazoun who is a co-founder and tech architect. Unusual investment strategy, but that's the high regard I hold for these two authors.

The Essential Guide to Flex 3 (Essentials)
$54.99
I am a beginning Flex programmer with only a bit of experience using ActionScript 3.0 with Flash. I found this book to be very helpful with both clear examples and a logical way of introducing and explaining the material. And because I rarely read a technical book sequentially, I rely heavily on the table of contents and index to help me find what I need. Both of these resources are excellent in this book.