Roy Pardi wrote: > I was wondering if anyone can recommend a good Flex book that is on the > level of Colin Moock's "Essential Actionscript 3"? In other words, > something that isn't primarily project building tutorial-based but instead > presents in-depth discussion of components and classes, the various > frameworks (PureMVC, etc.) why choose one approach over another, best > practices, etc. I ask because the thing that is hardest to get my head > around is more architectural than syntax etc. > > Also, do most people use some form of code behind rather than loading code > into CDATA script blocks?
Welcome to the Flex world, Roy. The best all-around book is probably "Adobe Flex 4: Training from the Source". I also like the "Flex 4 Cookbook". I don't think Colin Moock has written anything specifically about FlashBuilder 4, but I imagine you have his "Essential ActionScript 3.0". Adobe also has a pretty good online site, Learn Flex in a Week <http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/videotraining/>. I don't know that any of the above covers frameworks, but this list is a good place to get info. As far as coding, I basically use FlashBuilder 4 as my IDE to develop AS3 apps. You just create a project, which will have 3-4 lines of MXML, and start writing code, just like in Flash. You can go deeper into Flex to take advantage of things like data grids and Flex components as well. About the demo you downloaded--it's probably FlashBuilder 4 Premium. It will time out in 60 or 90 days, and then you'll need to buy it. When that time comes, you have a couple choices--pull out the wallet and put down about $500 for an upgrade (I think you can upgrade from CS4 for about $500--you can check the prices). Most people don't need the premium edition, though. It has stuff like graphing, but the Standard edition has the same debugger and IDE options. I upgraded from CS4 Web Premium to CS5 Web Premium, which includes the Standard edition of FlashBuilder 4. It does everything I want, cost a couple hundred bucks less, and has all the rest of the CS suite (Flash, PhotoSlop, yada yada). Do note that, when you upgrade to CS5, the serial number you get will not activate your demo version--the demo is premium, and you get Standard with CS5. It's not a big deal--just uninstall the premium version, install CS5, open FB 4, point it at your project, and you're good to go. I'm even running Subclipse with it. (Much of this info came from Mark Jonkman--gotta give credit where it's due). And, a shameless plug--if you buy your books from Amazon, you can help support the symphony I play in, the Boston Civic Symphony, by going to our Web site, www.csob.org, and click on the Amazon link at the bottom. It doesn't cost you anything extra, and our orchestra gets a small commission on stuff you buy at Amazon that way :-) Cordially, Kerry Thompson
