> So why Flex? Could you list out some reasons? You need to answer that > relative to other platforms.
Sure. I can tackle this one. Flex isn't perfect for everyone. I've seen a lot of people with solid Flash chops try to use Flex and just get frustrated. (Nobody said Flex was "easy") :) There has been a ton of improvement in the product since the early days. Flex 1.5 was rough to say the least. Flex 2.0 was a ton better, and Flex 3 is proof positive that Adobe has been listening to the community to make the tool more robust and more integrated with the CS3 line of tools. Why Flex over Flash? I think the case for Flex over flash has to do with the type of application you are building. If you've got a very robust "application", Flex is probably the right tool. If you've got a team of "developers" as opposed to "Flash developers", Flex is probably the right reason. If you've got a project that requires heavy use of data, data visualization, or needs to utilize some more advanced back-end systems ... Flex is the tool. This is especially the case when thinking about applications that might utilize LiveCycle Data Services or the OpenSource Blaze Data Services. Flex isn't better than flash... it is just a different tool to accomplish the same end goal. You have to use a tool that works best for you and your team. Instead of saying "Why Flex over AJAX", I will instead say "Why the Flash player over AJAX". Both Adobe Flash and Flex output Flash player content. Whatever you use to develop your application, there are significant benefits to using Flex over AJAX... again it depends on your specific project! I will say that in recent months, I've done several evaluations of technology for client projects, and have had to compare Flex to AJAX for each. The biggest advantages of using the Flash player as a runtime for your RIA as opposed to using AJAX: 1) Write once, deploy cross platform 2) You can turn your Flex application into a desktop application without much code refactoring (using AIR). 3) With the evolution of browsers, you can be less concerned about how to migrate your code to keep up with changes in the Document Object Model in AJAX, as the Flash player is backwards compatible. 4) The Flash player now has hardware acceleration... so you can build UI's that look and feel the way YOU want the to, and not be limited by your development technology 5) 3-d integration (using papervision or another framework) 6) Handles LOTS of data much, much, much better (data grids with tons of rows, etc) To help you understand what other benefits flex can offer, check out www.flex.org. How is it perfect when these java/rails/jango/foobar developers need to > learn yap (yet another platform). Given the transition/learning time - what > are the net benefits that make it better than sticking with the tried and > true? It isn't. You have to use tools that you know of course. I will say that the ramp-up time for experienced Java or C# developers to move to Flex is nominal. ActionScript 3.0 is a lot like Java or C#. The benefits aren't from a technology point of view. I really think that the benefits are around the user experience that you can get from a Flex application as opposed to something else. If you know Java and that's your thing, then Flex isn't too far off from your comfort level. Again, I wouldn't recommend anyone use a new technology on a critical project. Especially a technology that is completely unfamiliar. One thing I will say about developing in Flex is that to make "killer" flex apps, you need to really know the framework and be able to proof-of-concept you way from the initial idea to a working application. You can build a flex application that "looks right" but has performance issues due to the way it was coded. There have been several projects we've worked on in the past where we were called in to help "save' a project that was built in Flex, but wasn't built properly. It was all there, but in order to make it launch-ready, needed a bit of refactoring, etc in order to be optimized for a great user experience. If you hit me up offline ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) or ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) I'd be more than happy to chat with you about things we've learned in the past regarding Flex and the do's and don'ts related to taking on projects using it. All in all, it's been a really good tool in my experiences... But I preface that by saying I've been fortunate enough to work with some pretty talented software engineers that really know the framework and how to make it sing. Flex, Flash, AJAX... whatever..... You have to build apps using tools you are comfortable with, and don't pick a technology simply because it's the latest thing :) Dave ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
