Use Flex Builder 2 SDK to power 3DFA !

[The Flash Man]

The Adobe Flex Builder 2 SDK is FREE !

3DFA is a nice platform for doing on-off Flash prototypes.

3DFA needs a more powerful ActionScript 3 scripting engine.

Why not use the FREE Adobe Flex Builder 2 SDK to enable 3DFA to have a more powerful AS3 scripting engine ?

Heck, why not just rework 3DFA to use the FREE Adobe Flex Builder 2 SDK to create compiled Flash SWF's ? This would solve all the problems currently found in 3DFA and allow those of us who like using it to use it for more applications other than the simplistic one-off Flash prototypes...

Just a thought.

The one thing Flex Builder 2 needs is what 3DFA has - a fast way to whip-up animated drawings that use simple drawing strokes.

[sadako232]

3dfa is getting a more powerfull actions script engine... be patient...

[Chris_Seahorn]

The one thing Flex Builder 2 needs is what 3DFA has - a fast way to whip-up animated drawings that use simple drawing strokes.

That's the rub...won't happen. Flex is not meant to be used for drawing or animation...hence the lack of tools for it. It's geared toward form based RIA's. Adobe has the upcoming Flash targeted for the artistic. Each platform has things specific to itself and some things are shared.

[The Flash Man]

It would not be difficult to make Flex 2 into a more artistic tool.

A little Painter App that can capture mouse-strokes and turn them into some XML that can be imported into a Sprite subclass and before you know it you have some of the better features of 3DFA built into Flex 2.

Some few extra bells and whistles would be needed to allow whatever was drawn to be scaled automatically to fit the object onto which the Sprite is placed but this would not be overly difficult.

I have no doubt some enterprising individuals (maybe even me, if I get the time) may create some 3DFA-like SWC's for Flex 2 but this would only happen if I get tired of waiting for the 3DFA folks to improve the real 3DFA.

Flex 2 has everything 3DFA needs - AS3, GUI Builder and tons of power.

Now don't get me wrong, I love 3DFA but I hate the fact that 3DFA is so overly simplistic and therefore useless for anything real. Imagine, for a moment, that you work at a Fortune 100 Company and you love 3DFA and your boss has asked you to create some kind of killer Flash applet... are you going to want to tell your boss you want to use Flex 2 or 3DFA ? If this were me, and sometimes it is, I would rather say the word "Flex 2" rather than "3DFA" even though sometimes 3DFA is the better tool. The fact of the matter is that Adobe is more respected than the folks who make 3DFA and this will always be the case for Fortune 100 - Fortune 500 folks who can't appreciate 3DFA the way the rest of us might. If 3DFA were to hook-up with the Flex 2 SDK then maybe it would be easier for folks like me, who value our jobs and the perceptions of our bosses, to say the word "3DFA" when we are asked which tools we might prefer to use.

I have no doubt the folks who created 3DFA would be more able to make artistic tools for Flex 2 cuz all this would take is one little SWC and then before you can say "Flex 2" 3DFA would have the power and "flex"ibility (no pun intended) of Flex.

Maybe I was the only one in the room who sees things this way...

[Chris_Seahorn]

Guess I should clarifiy. First, I'm a Flex user and meant no slight by saying Flex isn't for the artistic. I should have said Flex targets form based RIA's and Adobe has Flash slated for the animation crowd. Can either be made to do both....yep....just Adobe won't be doing it IMO. Flex does however have things Flash doesn't and I'm sure Flash will have things Flex doesn't (like drawing tools in the GUI).

As for how it can benefit 3DFA, one of their representatives stated in here a while back when I asked that they will be bringing on AS3 support so as far as third party tools are concerned...that would immediately make 3dfa the most capable of ALL 3rd parties since no other tool has done it yet.

[blanius]

Not to be negative but 3dfa has never even been AS1 compliant, hard to imagine it being the first kid on the block to be AS3 compliant. I imagine what it will be is it may use some AS3 code or AS3 syntax.

3dfa is good for those that don't want to delve into scripting too deeply. It's very good at quick and simple animated tasks and offers some interesting shortcuts to scripting that can make certain programming easier.

Just my opinion.... But I was a active user of 3dfa from Version 2-3r4 when I had to stop as the program was not being updated for so long and there were critical scripting bugs that I could not live with.

[Finjogi]

As a programmer (Asm, java, C, basic, etc. you name it) I see it that 3DFA could handle all AS1 as it is just matter of if they implement it in 3dfa javascript. For now 3dfa compiles most of AS1 syntax, just few classes and such are not too easy to code in 3dfa javascript. 3dfa as latest release accepts filters, blending modes etc.. but requires some 3dfa javascript vs. AS1 refactoring in code. Most of AS1 code just goes without refactoring. Preview in other hand is a bit non standard Flash implementation, not bad but quite useless for actual Flash8-9 features preview.

If there are enough information of compiling AS3 or 3dfa are "hackers" enough, implementing AS3 should not be impossible, just takes some time...

I like the fact that 3dfa have picked up some speed in development, latest betas are quite nice example, and I cant wait for more

[The Flash Man]

As a programmer (Asm, java, C, basic, etc. you name it) I see it that 3DFA could handle all AS1 as it is just matter of if they implement it in 3dfa javascript. For now 3dfa compiles most of AS1 syntax, just few classes and such are not too easy to code in 3dfa javascript. 3dfa as latest release accepts filters, blending modes etc.. but requires some 3dfa javascript vs. AS1 refactoring in code. Most of AS1 code just goes without refactoring. Preview in other hand is a bit non standard Flash implementation, not bad but quite useless for actual Flash8-9 features preview.

If there are enough information of compiling AS3 or 3dfa are "hackers" enough, implementing AS3 should not be impossible, just takes some time...

I like the fact that 3dfa have picked up some speed in development, latest betas are quite nice example, and I cant wait for more

Okay but if what you said about 3DFA is accurate then 3DFA is poorly documented.

As a programmer who codes just about every language that's been available since the mid 70's I can tell you it is by-far easier to leverage an exiting SDK than to code one yourself.

The more I delve into Flex 2 the more I come to understand just how hideously powerful it is as a Flash platform. I am convinced there is very nearly nothing one might want to do with Flash that could not be done using Flex 2 including but not limited to creating a 3DFA knock-off, if one so desired.

I can not say enough about how easy it is to code AS3 from within the Flex Builder 2 IDE. State-based GUI programming with the ability to code complex state transitions quickly and easily just cannot be beat.

It would not be difficult at-all to create an image editor using Flex 2. Not even 3DFA can do image editing other than to allow paint-strokes to be placed on top of existing bitmaps.