Marcelo de Moraes Serpa wrote: > > I've been off the Flash world for some time now and my next project will > probably be built on the Flash Platform. > > I love the Flash Platform. I used to work with Flash and built a big > application in the past in Flash 8 (using the FAMES combo). > > Coming back now, and not sure which way to go for this next project. > > This Flex vs Flash debate is an old one, I know. Flex is marketed at > developers, Flash at designers. However, sometimes you are both the > designer and develope of the application. Sometimes, you just stumble > upon someone who is a "deseloper", which is my case. > > This project will be a very visually stunning website. It will have > animations, transitions, and tweens everywhere. The GUI will have its > visual (skins?) heavily modified (don't think only CSS could do that). > > I'm a good, skilled developer. I don't mind creating some GUI component > and classes from scratch if needed. I also don't mind coding some layout > code if needed and build the GUI in Flash + AS3. Sometimes, coding from > scratch is better than using a bloated API. > > However, this app will have lots of data to handle, indeed. That's why > I'm considering Flex, since it is more geared to data handling than > Flash. Maybe I will blend the two, using Flash for assembling the > visuals and then melting them in the Flex app, however, don't know how > FlexIble Flex is in this respect (heavily changing visuals).
Flex is not a magic of data handling, don't wish it will do the job for you. It actually some sort of bloated framework similar used in Java world, with built-in code injection, standard visual components, and non-visual components most of enterprise applications required. When you develop with Flex, you have to 'thinking in Flex', you need skills likely those in Java enterprise applications. If your project has big amounts of visual changes, I wonder if Flex could be your best choice. If your project using lots of data grids, standard lists, forms etc, with complex data models on the back, go Flex. You could use both Flash and Flex in a single project though, it depends, there will be slight limitation and not same as traditional Flash projects. > > There are many pur Flash frameworks around, such as LowRA, I might just > use that for general design patterns and build what I need. I think Flex > is only appealing becouse of the GUI components and its data-aware > nature, however, this is a very creative project and these (not sure if > they are) components are usually hard to have its appearance and visual > behavior modified. > > What do you guys think? Any suggestions are welcome. > > Thanks, > > Marcelo. >
