Why switch to flex?

[eNine]

i keep hearing that flash is just for designers,flex for programmers. being of the latter, I just have one question--what would I be able to do with flex that I can't do already do with Flash. I'm not really in the mood to learn a new IDE just 'cause it's for programmers', but if there are some benefits to programming with FLex, i'd consider the switch .

[gerbick]

If you're a programmer that's already used the Eclipse IDE, then you're golden. If you've rather use a true framework - MVC for instance - instead of using straight singletons... then you're golden.

I like the way Flex isn't tied down to timelines - I hate it when things are nested so deeply that I have to trace to what level it's stopping - and how its structure in a lot of situations "just makes sense". And I'm more designer than programmer; although I tend to do the programming too much.

Having a true debug environment - the toggle breakpoints in Flash has never worked for me... never - makes my life easier. The other parts of Flex - the highlighting/code hinting, are structured in a way that makes Flash my secondary. But it's not entirely intuitive if you're not a programmer that's followed patterns whatsoever.

Run the 30 day demo. I made it a week into Flex 3 before I made my company buy it for me.

[eNine]

i think i'll try the 30 day demo, especially if flex's debugger is better than flash's which, i agree, is pretty weak. also am a big eclipse fan (when writing Java).
thanks for the feedback.

[MauMau777]

After working with Flash for years (several versions, except the latest ones, I tried Flex now for several weeks but I am seriously thinking about switching back to Flash now. I don't like the MXML stuff because it works like a masking to the ActionScript code behind and it's hard to tell what the MXML code really does backstage. Additionally I realized that the MXML stuff and the ActionScript part do not work very well together, it's like mixing two worlds that are completely different. And most tutorials or books only focus on ONE part, either MXML or ActionScript, but in many cases you have to use BOTH to bring something to work.

The only advantage I really see using Flex is the nice code editor based on Eclipse which features great syntax autocompletion and the nice GUI builder, but the IDE is also quite overloaded and almost too complicated for quick, "creative" approaches.

But I am no hardcore OOP programmer, so maybe I am not representating Flex' primary target group.

[rdoyle720]

What can you do in Flex that you can't do in Flash? Nothing. You could do it all in Flash if you wanted to. The purpose of Flex is if you're building an app, they've put a whole heck of a lot of shortcuts in it for you.

Want to click a button and have your whole layout change with an animated transition? You can do it in about 60 seconds. Want to have a piece of data change when they choose a radio button? You can do it without writing a function.

The disadvantage of Flex is that you're working with their components, and if their component doesn't do one little thing you want it to do, you might pull your hair out trying to make it happen. So Flex = speed but little flexibility, where Flash = ultimate control but slower (sometimes a lot slower!) to implement.

[Chris_Seahorn]

I see no reason anyone would have to "switch" to any authoring environment unless they prefer to only support one platform at a time. Shouldn't what we use be based on the need?

If you have the time and are motivated to learn Flex, I don't see how that would not benefit any SWF programmer as another tool in their toolbox or bag of tricks. Does that mean you have to be tied to one platform? Use it exclusively? Why put yourself in a position to turn down possible clients because you don't support it (and yes...there are many for whatever reason who want things coded with Flex and not Flash) if it interests you or is something you find worth the trouble to learn. To simply say "I don't see the need because Flash rules" boxes you in to a Flash only existence.

[kortex]

What can you do in Flex that you can't do in Flash? Nothing. You could do it all in Flash if you wanted to. The purpose of Flex is if you're building an app, they've put a whole heck of a lot of shortcuts in it for you.

Exactly, I could code exclusively in notepad. I don't cause that would suck. Simply put there are applications that created in Flash that if I had Flex at the time could have been done in 1 tenth the time.

If the tool helps, use it, if it don't, don't.

As a side note, who let Chris back into the room (yes I am being a wise ass in case that's not clear, have not seen you in a while)

[Chris_Seahorn]

I snuck through security

Happy holidays to you and yours Kortex! (et al)