I have used both Flex Builder standalone and the Flex Builder Eclipse plug-in for substantial periods of time. The stand-alone Flex Builder is easier to use, unless you are already an experienced user of Eclipse. The reason it is easier to use is that a typical Eclipse install has all this extra stuff unrelated to Flex, and the menu choices aren't as specific to Flex work. If you are learning the technology, the books and videos are going to show you how to do things in Flex Builder. Also, unless you clean up your Eclipse install to remove all the unnecessary plug-ins, it is going to be slower.
The best combination is personal preference. I prefer HomeSite over Eclipse when editing CF code (not considering ColdFusion Builder). HomeSite is light-weight, simple to use, quick to load, doesn't use a lot of computer resources, and does one thing very well. Once ColdFusion Builder is released, the question of the best IDE will hopefully be answered definitively. There are IDEs for Flex other than what Adobe provides. One person I know who does full-time Flex and Flash work insists that FDT is a much better IDE. http://fdt.powerflasher.de/ There are other IDEs as well, some of which interface with the free Flex SDK, allowing you to program in Flex for free. I heard (possibly from Terrence Ryan) that if you install both Flash/Flex Builder and ColdFusion Builder, that you should install Flash/Flex Builder first. Whatever issues led to this recommendation might be fixed by the time CF Builder is released for sale. If you are installing these programs for the first time, I recommend using Flex Builder stand-alone and the ColdFusion Builder beta version. -Mike Chabot On Fri, Aug 21, 2009 at 12:47 PM, Tom McNeer<[email protected]> wrote: > > As Andy says, no matter how you install it, if you run FlexBuilder, it's > running as a plugin for Eclipse. > > The same is true for CFBuilder. It's just another Eclipse plug-in, no matter > how you install it. > > So to handle both CF and Flex, you need some combination of Eclipse > plug-ins, either FB and CFB, or FB and CFEclipse. No way around it. > > If you have FlexBuilder, even installed as a "standalone," you can just add > CFEclipse as a plugin. That's simple enough, and that's how I have things > running on one of my machines. > > Although there's obviously been no official word, I have received strong > suggestions that there will be some sort of Flex Builder 4/CF Builder combo > pricing. > > -- > Thanks, > > Tom > > Tom McNeer > MediumCool > http://www.mediumcool.com > 1735 Johnson Road NE > Atlanta, GA 30306 > 404.589.0560 > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Want to reach the ColdFusion community with something they want? Let them know on the House of Fusion mailing lists Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:325595 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
