reviewed by: Jen deHaan

Version: Studio MX

The Studio MX Bible is a book covering (obviously) all the programs that make up the Macromedia MX product line. I had nothing to do with this book, but did have the opportunity to be involved with the Flash Bible, ColdFusion Bible, ActionScript Bible, and Studio MX for Dummies. Therefore, not too sure if this review might be a bit of a "comparison", but I will try not to do that too much.

It is a momumentous task to undertake - five large pieces of software all contained within one book (Freehand, Fireworks, Flash, Dreamweaver and ColdFusion). But I have to say it was accomplished quite well and did cover a lot of ground in each subject. Many experts were called in to help co-author this book, either as authors for the entire "mini-books", or as expert tutorialists or contributors. This means that you do have experienced individuals involved with each subject, which overall is advisable and a definite asset (this isn't always the case, to be sure.)

Part 1 of the book introduces you to Studio MX in its entirely, and gives you an overview of the new features in each piece of software. This is great for all of us who have experience using earlier versions of these programs. The section ends with a very brief (and slightly odd) case study overview of a Web site built integrating the products.

Before getting into the "meat" of the book, I want to strongly point out that this is a DIFFICULT book to put together. To only have around 1000 pages to cover these HUGE programs in a through manner is a hard thing to do. It is therefore hard to be critical knowing the page constraints the authors had when writing this book. Please take into consideration this when reading the notes below (and the fact I am a very nitpicky reader when it comes to Flash).

Since this site is devoted to Flash MX, let's take a close look at the Flash section.

Flash is obviously my "concentration" and the subject I usually write on, so I always have a particuar eye for detail when reading other books on the subject. The Flash section did cover a lot of ground in the limited number of pages that could be dedicated to it. I did not like the "old" coding style that was used for the section. I am very adament about not using "object based" code in Flash MX books unless it is absolutely necessary. It is only necessary in certain circumstances, and these circumstances were not present in this section. Therefore, I think that Flash MX style should have been used in this book, when it wasn't. Not using MX style is confusing to readers who will find it in other books and in online tutorials. Outdated practices such as on(release) and on(rollover) are perhaps fine in beginners texts, however are never necessary. They are littered throughout the ActionScript section, which I think should have definitely been avoided. There were also some inaccuracies in this chapter regarding programming in general, which was slightly irritating. For instance on page 476 the note about the var prefix (which sets a LOCAL variable). And on the next page about Object data types being incomplete and misleading. I'm also not too sure why there was so much concentration (a few pages, even covering remote and breakpoints) on debugging in this introduction to Flash, and yet one paragraph on UI Components. Otherwise, the Flash section was mostly accurate and had some useful exercises.

The Dreamweaver section was very well done, with a lot of content covered but in a consistent eye for detail and workflow. I found this part of the book to be easy to follow along and very intuitive for readers and those starting out in Dreamweaver. However, following this was the ColdFusion section which I also found to be a bit sketchy. ColdFusion is obviously a mammoth subject, so very difficult to squeeze into such a short section of a book. However, why there was an entire chapter devoted to Remoting is beyond me. Yes, it is definitely integration and does have something to do with Studio MX (although not directly), and a subject I love, but I found it very out of place in this book. This "space" could have been much better used on another ColdFusion subject or fleshing out of the other ColdFusion chapters. I found this section to be rather hurried (and not too sure if it is extremely usable by those new to ColdFusion), however relatively well done considering the circumstances. I would also have considered replacing the custom tag section on a chapter about CFCs, but that is more just personal preference and choices rather than a bad thing =)

It was also nice to see Freehand MX covered (and not just 10). This software was released in Studio not long before this book was published, so it was an unexpected (and nice) surprise to see that in the book. Kudos to the authors with having this done. Also, I was very happy to see "integration" suggestions and practices throughout the book between the Studio programs. This is defintiely very useful addition to the book. I think these authors did a very good job of a difficult book to put together.

Overall, I definitely recommend this book if you want a well rounded and helpful look at Studio MX. It is definitely worth the money and time spent reading the content! A great book, so it definitely deserves: (4/5).

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