Don’t worry, that’s not the only copy I have of my book. And no, I don’t intend to take a drive along a dangerous snowy mountain road anywhere near a crazy woman’s cabin.
It’s just that I’ve learned a lot while writing the Flash iOS Apps Cookbook. Firstly, hard copies are important – they really do help you spot mistakes that for some reason elude you when reading on a screen. Secondly, a good selection of biscuits* is essential! I’m particularly enjoying those new Aero biscuit thingies at the moment, and the Kit Kat is a timeless classics in my opinion.
Anyway, you’re probably more interested in my progress, and there are a few things I’d actually like to talk about. The first draft (pictured above) was finished just over a month ago and I’m now working my way through the excellent feedback I’ve currently received from my technical reviewers.
In fact, it’s actually a comment from one of the reviewers that’s prompted me to write this post. You see, he’d asked why I’d bothered covering both Flash Professional CS5 and CS5.5. Why not just focus on 5.5? It’s a very good question and one which I’ll now attempt to answer.
The Flash iOS Apps Cookbook did actually begin life as a CS5.5 only title. However it became apparent early on that there were many people who hadn’t yet upgraded from CS5 to CS5.5. In fact, several of my technical reviewers have yet to upgrade. WeeWorld, the company I work for, is also still using Flash CS5 and this is the case for many other organisations out there.
So in an attempt to extend the book’s reach as far as possible, the decision was taken to cover Flash Professional CS5 as well as CS5.5. Of course, CS5 users won’t be able to attempt all recipes – but they can work their way through around 75% of the ones that currently feature in the RAW version of the book, which is pretty good if you ask me.
Of course this doesn’t mean I’m neglecting the newer features of AIR that are available to CS5.5 users. I’m hoping that the material that covers the more recent features will actually encourage CS5 owners to upgrade. After all, the performance gains that have been made recently with AIR for iOS are significant, and I aim to highlight that wherever possible.
So if you’re a CS5 user and fancy dipping your toe into the water then there’s plenty on offer for you. And if you eventually want to take your iOS development more seriously then there’s more than enough additional content there to encourage you to upgrade to CS5.5 and take full advantage of AIR for iOS.
* I believe they’re called ‘cookies’ in the US, but here in the UK we have a distinction between a biscuit and a cookie. Or at least they do in the part of the UK where I’m from 🙂