The particulars of MXML require a specialized editor that understands the model. I am not sure that Flash would be the right place for this. As we saw with Forms & Screens sometimes new paradigms in older tools just do not work.
I do believe there needs to be a dramatically better UI for editing MXML and Flex Builder 2 is looking to be a great addition. There is some middle ground that Flex Builder 2 is missing in terms of exact layout. It would be nice to provide a nestable UI to provide exact positioning in each tag level so users could drill into the layout seeing only that level. The limitation with Flex Builder is more due to having to render an entire view from root down vs just showing a layout of a single node downward. Ideally the 'designers' in Flex 2 could only render children of a selected node. This would dramatically change the usefulness of the toolset for graphical layout. There needs to be much better graphical tools for building Flex application. Although you can extend with Flash, extendibility is a bit disjointed. My 2 cents, Ted ;) > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:flashcoders- > [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Michael Bedar > Sent: Friday, October 28, 2005 9:20 AM > To: Flashcoders mailing list > Subject: Re: [Flashcoders] Why Flex? > > My question is why separate development environments... Could > FlexBuilder2 not be rolled into the Flash IDE? I don't know enough > about Flex to say for sure, but it would make the picture a lot > clearer if mxml was just another way to work in the flash ide > > > On Oct 28, 2005, at 1:58 AM, Theodore E Patrick wrote: > > >> My question for the Flex people is this, what does Flex bring to the > >> table that I can not already do with 04 Pro (not counting the new > >> AS 3.0)? > >> > > > > Allot! > > > > 1. There are tons of details in building apps in Flash 2004 Pro > > that just > > get removed when using Flex. All the small painful lessons that you > > needed > > to know disappear as they are built into the Flex Framework. This > > allows you > > to focus on the actual application you are building. > > > > 2. Better components and more of them. Containers, VBox, Repeaters, > > oh my! > > > > 3. Larger applications. Building very large scale applications in > > Flex is > > very feasible where it was hard to do this with Flash 2004 Pro. You > > can > > reuse blocks of MXML in Flex as a component. > > > > 4. MXML generates AS Classes. MXML is a code generator, it takes a > > simple > > XML hierarchy and generates an AS class representing your app just > > before > > compilation. As MXML is translated before compilation, tags can > > provide > > embedding of graphics, component generation, and UI generation that > > is very > > exact and detailed. In Flash the hierarchy of an application is > > hidden from > > the developer, where in Flex the hierarchy is directly what is > > added into > > the MXML XML tree. Flex is right aligned. > > > > I felt the same thing about Flex 10 months ago. It took being > > dropped into a > > Flex project to see it for myself. You can build much larger scale > > applications in Flex than you can in Flash and in Flex they are 20 > > times > > easier to maintain and change ongoing. Team development is also > > enhances > > with Flex. As apps are mostly ASCII text, Flex is easy to work with in > > version control. > > > > Take the leap and learn Flex. It is one of the best things you can > > do long > > term within the Flash Platform. You will loath learning a new > > toolset at > > first but soon you will be writing application faster than before > > and with > > less hassle. Plus as you know Flash, you can extend Flex with it! > > > > I though for a while that Flex was going to automate me out of a > > job. The > > reality is that once you know it, the project scope in Flex is much > > larger. > > I am working on better projects and earning a good bit having > > learned Flex. > > > > My 2 Cents, > > > > Theodore Patrick > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > No virus found in this outgoing message. > > Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. > > Version: 0.0.344 / Virus Database: 267.12.4/146 - Release Date: > > 10/21/2005 > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Flashcoders mailing list > > [email protected] > > http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders > > > > _______________________________________________ > Flashcoders mailing list > [email protected] > http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.1.361 / Virus Database: 267.12.5/149 - Release Date: 10/25/2005 > -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.361 / Virus Database: 267.12.5/149 - Release Date: 10/25/2005 _______________________________________________ Flashcoders mailing list [email protected] http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders
