I complete agree with filippo. The issue with flex is not whether it is the best choice as a UI framework ( which it wins hands down... ) but the platform on which it is deployed. I was really saddened the day when a really good framework was shot down just because of horrible PR.
I was supposed to start on a new project which left to me, I would have picked Flex since its the most ideal environment. Its a large single page app. What happened? Managers and VP's ruled it out of existence just because of all the new buzz. The questions asked were : 1.Why would you build it on a platform that is dying? 2. If it is dying today, where will we find more flex developers to sustain this project... stuff like these... I knew from day 1 that JS / JQuery are not going to be enough to support such a huge project. I had to investigate alternatives and finally move onto GWT. The Apache community has to somehow bring back Flex ( from the dead ). Yes there are still quite a lot of players who are quite into it, I agree. But.. We need more people..more support. We need to show people something and the end of the tunnel. A ray of hope. A vision that will make them feel for it. I completely agree with the ideology of thinking totally technically, fixing issues that have always been alive in Flex and that we get a chance to fix now. But this is secondary. Even without those fixes Flex is a great platform. The problem is, the ground on which this platform is standing is shaking ( Flash Player? ).. The greatest advantages of Flash platform has been AS3 which makes writing programs a breeze with the way it is built. Then Flex came along and blew the wow factors to the sky. And then came the Adobe PR folks with long range missiles that show it down from the skies. Now... Its upto us. Lets create roadmaps...If you feel, lets create branching roads.. which take different routes.. A route that goes towards changing the platform.. a route that takes us towards a more robust Flex architecture. etc etc.. I see we are doing quite a few fixes into the Apache Flex version already. Would it be too much to ask the Apache Flex team ( those with some power? those who have been named into different roles. ) to chart out some long term visions? Run polls.. on different community groups.. Point those people to a page and run a survey? Pick the ones that gain the highest votes. Rally the community of developers we have here to each projects. Start them.. Lets have a clear communication channel ( maybe a site? ) - which actually tells the community ( that follows flex ) as to where it is headed. Lets give them sneak peaks ( like adobe does ) that can excite people and entice them to contribute to it? There are competing forces around us. There is Dart which is quite close to what AS3 is. How about building Flex on top of Dart? If we need to stay where we are .. we need to run.. and we are just trotting along. Let me point out something.. Usually, open source projects start out as small snow specks.. These overtime gain momentum since they start exciting and enticing people. Slowly this momentum creates and avalanche effect and that is probably how stuff like JQuery / Linux etc are born ( Please feel free to correct me.. I might be totally wrong here ). Flex is already a huge snow ball. It has gained quite a lot of weight. Somehow the adobe PR techniques have slowed it down to a standstill. When a snowball stops in a place it starts to drip.. We need to provide it with enough momentum to set the ball rolling again. Sorry.. that perhaps was a bit emotional..But I really dont want to see Flex die.. Will be happy to contribute to the Flex community. On Sat, Feb 4, 2012 at 12:58 PM, Alex Harui <aha...@adobe.com> wrote: > > > > On 2/3/12 9:01 AM, "filippo dipisa" <fili...@dipisa.net> wrote: > > > So what is the message that the Apache Flex should give to the outside > Flex > > comunity to convice them to stay and to help apache as well? > The message is now that you can actually make a difference. Before you > could submit patches and wait forever. Now you can change the code you > want > to change. No more waiting and wishing, just doing. > > -- > Alex Harui > Flex SDK Team > Adobe Systems, Inc. > http://blogs.adobe.com/aharui > > -- Regards, Ganaraj P R
