I should add that there was one more reason I suggested this that relates more to your original question.
I think the best way to start with Flex is not to focus on MXML or the Flex framework or the nice components or liquid layout so much up front, but to focus on the As3 language first. To just start with some text programming and implement something you've done already in another language seems to be the best way to start feeling comfortable with it pretty quickly. The graphics and layout and components are the thing that motivates one to use Flex in the end, but I don't think it's the best way to get familiar with the language and how it works. If you start out by creating your custom components and dealing with the larger UI framework it's easy to get bogged down with details. You find yourself focusing on style properties and framework issues, rather than the repeatable aspects of the core language. I think since I started looking at everything as As3 first, instead of Mxml, I've made quicker progress as a result. On 2/9/07, Cortlandt Winters <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Hi Matt, Something I'd like to see would be a contest like you had when Flex2 first came out, but with two differences. 1) The focus is on porting open source libraries from other languages to As3. 2) The prizes aren't tv's, but licences to either Flash Media Server or Flex Data Sevices. That way if somebody has an idea that they think would be worth creating if not for the eventual server license costs, there is a real motivation to implementing it. If they sucede and it wins, maybe they can make a small business out of it. What programmer wants a tv? Programming is twice the fun. Put those servers at the disposal of some motivated individuals rather than just companies with capital funding at no cost to yourselves but providing ten times the value of a tv to the contestants. Though I competely agree with Bruce Eckel's article in general, it is also still true that there are 10 years of libraries available for applets. If hell were to freeze and sun were to suddenly learn how to make installing applets easy for the normal computer user, applets would suddenly be competitive because of that. For business software I think applets are competitive in many cases because of existing libraries. With all the speed of as3, we still don't have a standard 3d library and there are a lot of graphing tools and abstract libraries that seem like they could be pretty easily ported over. Thanks for asking. -Cort On 2/9/07, Matt Chotin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > http://weblogs.macromedia.com/flexteam/archives/2007/02/flex_campaign_f. > > cfm > > Hopefully we're going to see an influx of people trying Flex, any > suggestions the community wants to put together for helping folks get up > and running are always appreciated. > > Matt > __._ >
