Gary Menzel wrote:
It goes like this......
We are currently building "dashboard" style systems for internal use (and possibly external use). Flash would probably help us do some of these (and we will probably use it for some things eventually). FLEX would probably make that path quicker (but wouldn't give us any real "Flash" expertise to do the harder things that FLEX may not do - like the NYSE dealing floor, for example). So, we are more likely to spend the budget in training our people to write real Flash applications - even though we could get SWF's out quickly with FLEX. The goal is not to get a few RIA's happening so we can keep pace with the Macromedia world....... The goal is to get a better user experience (which may only be achieved by writing Flash directly and not by using FLEX OR may simply be just a better HTML layout that provides up-to-date information when they view the page).
If this is what you are really looking to build longer term you should seriously consider Flex as a viable approach. The concept of writing "real" Flash applications is an anathema.
Flex is not so much about rapid Flash development (although this is one of the advantages) as it is about collaborative development. Flash IDE, the FLA, and everything about it is the bane of largescale development -- it sucks. This is why Flex has been built.
Without a very sophisticated knowledge of Flash development it is all but impossible for a dev team to put together a large scale Flash architecture that is not bottle-necked by key developers and FLA binaries. If it were a piece of cake to externalise everything as actionscript files and work collaboratively in Flash everyone would be doing it. Few projects have the budget to resource these projects sufficiently.
Then as we move into the longer term cycle of enterprise development, large Flash applications typically leave you with all kinds of maintenance difficulties. Not to mention an ecclectic mix of binaries and texts to version.
Rest assured that no amount of training is going to give developers an insight into large scale RIA development -- its a mystical art learnt only through painful experience. Of course its possible and many teams are successful but at what cost??
This is why Flex is a compelling product for large scale RIA development. And a *very* cost effective solution for the right portfolio of projects.
-- geoff http://www.daemon.com.au/
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MXDU2004 + Macromedia DevCon AsiaPac + Sydney, Australia http://www.mxdu.com/ + 24-25 February, 2004
