Hi, certainly agree re early days of Adobe being better, but, then most of us were new to it all. I do read threads and articles in Pipwerks as we are one of the early e-learning providers. And it is some of your examples that helped me understand Flash much better. I sorted my problem before finding your help on SWFObject. The code generator is excellent, but, I was left with "um, what do I do now" for a while. In my case I wanted to try using Slideshowpro in our system before involving the cost of our professional developers, so, wanted to utilise SWFObject to do that. There must be many like me who are not coders, do not have coding skills and understanding, but, benefit from SWFObject being so well written it is virtually a turnkey solution to embed Flash. In which case the instructions need just a slight added comments for code ignorant 'idiots' like me. In fact SWFObject worked better than Slideshowpro's own embed code which failed when used in our application. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't referring to learning Javascript, it was the instructions for deploying SWFObject that I was really referring to, it sort of got stretched to other things on the way. I started by reading all in deconcept first version, then version 2, and while it is very detailed step by step, there are quite a few points were a leap in explanation is made assuming the reader knows what is meant or knows what to do. I will send a copy of the instructions with those points noted for your comment. Suggest under a new thread called "SWF Leaps". It is not just me as I joined in this thread seeing someone else note the same thing, and quite a few before.
Regards Jonathan -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Philip Hutchison Sent: 15 October 2008 22:20 To: [email protected] Subject: Re: IE error message - swfobject is undefined one of the best things anyone can do -- experienced or novice -- is use "view source" on working examples. i've spent countless hours creating swfobject examples and posting them on my site (http://pipwerks.com/lab/swfobject/) with basic instructions. i've never included instructions that explain how to add a <script> element to the page, because i assume a certain level of competence in JavaScript. however, anyone wishing to learn -- or just trying to get it to work without caring how -- should always start by copying working examples. that's how i learned, and how i continue to learn. it's also what you'd do if you bought a book on a programming language and followed the book's examples. :) as for this group providing instructions for someone completely new to JavaScript, i believe that's outside the scope of the group and the SWFObject documentation. it's obvious we'd like to help, it's just that starting from zero requires an awful lot of explanation and teaching, and we're not really here for that. we do care, but our time and resources aren't unlimited. the best thing i can do is recommend some books or sites that help a person get the basics before trying to do the more advanced stuff. there are literally hundreds of thousands of JavaScript tutorials and how-tos on the www, the most famous probably being www.w3schools.com <http://www.w3schools.com/js/default.asp> and http://javascript.about.com/. as for books, i think Jeremy Keith's DOM <http://books.google.com/books?id=LBTQ83bAz6QC&dq=Jeremy+Keith+DOM+Scripting > Scripting is an excellent primer for JavaScript newbies; it's well-written in an easy-to-understand style, contains practical examples with lots of context, and follows today's best practices. RE: Adobe's poor documentation, i agree. I think most of it is very dense and hard to read, even for experienced developers. what's funny is that in their early days they had excellent documentation. i used to work in prepress as a typesetter, and the books and other printed materials that shipped with Adobe's software was extremely useful and well-crafted. i still use some of those books to teach people about printing concepts such as CMYK, registration, and basic color theory. - philip On Wed, Oct 15, 2008 at 10:46 AM, Jonathan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: I wonder, will it be aimed at semi experienced people upwards. Have you ever, or do you remember back to, when you knew little, tried to follow Adobe product manuals. Even their on-line tutorials leaving yawning gaps just when you think its making sense. As one who founded on DOS when a 33Mhz computer was leading edge and cost £6k, I think its even worse today. Even their current website is frustrating to follow. I follow several Adobe forums, the extent of questions and their nature shows just how others struggle to get up to working speed with their products - hence the number of 'xyz' for dummies books in my collection. But, Adobe is by no means alone in this. Anyway, I will do my suggestion over the next week and hope it will lead to helping others. As I have gained much from your forums, I would like to put something back in. Regards Jonathan -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Bobby Sent: 15 October 2008 10:48 To: SWFObject Subject: Re: IE error message - swfobject is undefined Your wish has been granted, in the coming month Adobe Devnet will publish 2 SWFObject introductory articles, so keep an eye on Adobe Devnet :-) I will also give a masterclass at the global Head conference (an online event): http://www.headconference.com/speakers/bobby-van-der-sluis/ --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "SWFObject" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/swfobject?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
