Why Chose Flex?

[Jonathon]

Hi Larry,

 

I was chatting to a guy the other day and he builds websites but also systems. Things such as a HR system or other things like that for companies. I enquired about what language he writes them in and he was a few different things. I've done Java, C, but the last one i've done is a PHP and MYSQL one.

 

Which lead me down to a thought that hadn't previously occured to me. That thought was that I in my head have been a bit narrow minded and just purely thought as projects in terms of the world wide web. I even use a system at work that runs on an intranet but it's built in JavaScript and Java from what I can figure.

 

So in turn I thought about this and thought theres nothing really stopping me hypothetically building something for a company to run on there local server. Which is when I thought about Flex. Is this the kind of thing people are often expecting to do with Flex?

 

I had previously always wondered what the deal is with Flex and how it would benefit me.

 

Could you perhaps explain why you would want to build something in Flex?

What are it's benefits as opposed to using HTML PHP CSS

It's down sides

I think I understand why it's classed as rich but with the emergence of HTML 5 will this have a downside on FLEX?

 

Apologies for the many questions, i'm just curious.

 

Theres obviously no rush with this question as I know your busy writing currently, but if you or anyone else gets chance to enlighten me, please do

 

Thanks

 

Apologies for the awful spelling on the title

[HartleySan]

Not replying on Larry's behalf, but I will offer my two cents: Basically, I don't think there is any definitive answer. Flex is like Flash for applications, as opposed to more graphic-oriented things. With that said, similar to Java's Virtual Machine, with Flex, as long as someone has Flash, they can view the content, and it will look consistent, regardless of the OS and browser. I think that's a big selling point for Flex: consistently across platforms. Likewise, if someone installs AIR, they can run the programs as desktop applications as well. Also, Flex has a lot of libraries, which make it easy to create what you want.

 

Well, I'm sure Larry will have more to offer to the discussion than that. I'll also ask my friend Matt, who sometimes participates on these boards to chime in, since his area of expertise is Adobe technologies, such as Flash and Flex.

 

Edit: A lot of people are saying that HTML5 is gonna be the downfall of Flash/Flex, but that's a long way off (if at all), I think. Show me at what point HTML5 can directly access the hardware on a computer (like Flash/Flex can), and also show me HTML5's replacement for Flash video, which runs on all sites such as YouTube, etc., and I'll say maybe. Like I said though, it's a long way off (if at all). I suppose the dream off "one Web language to rule them all" isn't all bad, but we're not there yet.

[Jonathon]

Hi HartleySan,

 

Not a problem at all friend, I'm more than happy for anyone who has some kind of knowledge about Flex to jump into this topic. I just wasn't sure who definitely would have some knowledge in the area bar Larry.

 

I've never really understood how Flex, Flash, AIR all fit together and what there roles are. But it wasn't until the other day I wondered what the advantages were to using it rather than say building a local system that runs of some PHP, JS and MYSQL.. This intrigued me to ask for peoples experiences and views, because you can't always tell from reading a product description how useful it will neccessarily be for you.

 

Thanks for the reply i'll look into it a bit more too

[HartleySan]

Well, one thing I can say for certain, if I were a programmer at a company, and my company wanted me to build some sort of system for internal use, I'd probably opt for Flex over HTML/CSS/JS any day of the week. It's just so much easier to quickly create and organize all the components you need. Plus, Adobe takes care of most of the nitty-gritty for you, and you don't have to worry about cross-browser issues, etc. Basically, it's a lot easier. I suppose that's the best way to put it.

 

That said, I think I still opt for the standard Ajax combo for websites to submit to the world, etc.

[Jonathon]

Yeah Web wise I'd agree and Flex does seem like a good idea. We recently had a discussion about time and trying to keep up withe pace that the web moves at. But I'm slowly begining to see what Flex could be used for here, which is good. I've got quite a few more things I want to be more efficent with. But as I investigate Flex I can see how it could open up a whole new plethora of options and routes for me (Time permitting though, I can't stress time permitting enough)

 

Thanks as ever HartleySan

[HartleySan]

Yeah, time is usually the limitation when it comes to these things.

 

I think another (somewhat unfortunate) circumstance that comes up is where your boss (who knows nothing about IT or the web) gets convinced by a bunch of salesmen that product XYZ is the best product for the job, so you're therefore required to learn how to use that product regardless of whether it's the best or not.

 

Luckily, in the case of Flex, while it more or less mirrors what Ajax can use, it is a good product, and definitely has its benefits.

[Larry]

Thanks for the questions, Jonathon. It's a valid line of thought. And thanks to HartleySan for the answers, which I totally agree with. First, HTML 5 will impact Flash, I suspect, but not be its downfall. It will be years before HTML 5 will be officially released, let alone reliably supported. Plus, more than anything, there's no one right tool.

 

I think the arguments for Flex-based Flash content over JavaScript-based rich content are these:

- Speed of development

- Reliability across all platforms

 

If a person can run Flash, the Flash will work the same (aside from performance issues on older machines, depending) everywhere. And Adobe would say that the Flash plug-in is installed on 99.9% of all computers. Of course, Flash content can't run on iOS devices, which is a concern. You can, of course, make JavaScript-based content run reliably on all browsers, it just takes more work. Frameworks such as jQuery simplify this process, too.

 

The speed of development is an obvious, and big, benefit, especially the more complicated a project is.

 

Flex 4.5 and Flash Builder 4.5 now supports mobile devices better, so you can create apps that will run (via AIR) on iOS, Android, and Blackberry Tablet devices easily. I'm going to play with that more this summer, but that's a crazy big benefit to me.

 

As for myself, if I need to add a little bit of dynamic functionality to a Web page, I use JavaScript. If I need to add a lot of dynamic functionality, or make something closer to a Web-based app, I use Flex. If I'm making desktop applications that run through AIR, I use Flex (even though I can use JavaScript for that, in fact wrote a book on that subject). So really it's a matter of scale to me. Certainly complex applications can be created in JavaScript, but it's just simpler and easier to use Flex at some point.

[Jonathon]

Thanks to Larry and HartlySan for your responses. Its cleared some things up for me. Because I as I mentioned I wasn't sure of its place in the market really. Learning learning learning (It never stops! All in the aid to keeping up and improving)

 

Thanks