Hello, Let me try to address a few questions on this thread:
> If I'm wrong, please point me to the documentation, FAQs, > etc. from Adobe that clearly explain the diferences between > Flex IDE and Flash IDE, or details about how to integrate > Flex into my workflow. We have an article on this up on the site here that hits just this topic: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash/articles/flex2_flash.html In addition, one of the best articles on this is now a bit old (since Flex 1.0, 2 years ago), but still worth checking out: The best article on this has been on our site since the release of Flex 1.0, 2 years ago. There are a few points in it that are now out of date, because it certainly predates Flex 2, AS3, the free SDK, the ability to deploy Flex apps without a server. But the core ideas in the article are still excellent and should help: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/articles/flash_perspective.html ----------------- Metaphors: two cars to get to work? Or a Boat and Car? I don't think either of these metaphors is quite right. But most complex projects bring together teams of people with multiple skills and different tools to achieve an aim. Build a house. The architect will use a cad tool, the carpenter hammer and nails, the interior designer may use photoshop, the painter will brushes, etc etc. For a given task, a carpenter could potentially use a hammer or a screw, but based on experience, preference etc will usually choose one. There is no one answer to how a team should build an RIA, but with Flex and Flash there is now a much richer toolset available to a wider set of people with differing skills who can work together to build these RIAs (and others on the team will use Photoshop, or AfterEffects, or a Java IDE, or PHP, or or or). If we are right that this RIA idea is a fundamental trend, having multiple metaphors that let more people design and build them is a good thing. Look at building Windows apps--you can use C, C++, MFC, Visual Basic, Flash Projectors, etc. To build HTML Web Apps you might use all or a mix of Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Photoshop, JSP, ASP, CF. Etc. In some cases one person spans all of these roles and tools and does it all, but more and more teams of people build these and bring different experiences and skills to the project, and need different tools and metaphors to contribute. ----------------- "Flash for animation and Flex for Forms"? I think this is a bit too simple. Certainly at the extremes it is a relatively valid segmentation, but Flash can be used for Forms and Flex can be used for animation. For us, the ideal is to enable teams of people that bring the media, animation, interaction design skills that proliferate in the Flash community with the coding/architecture skills that comes from Computer Science backgrounds (not that these are mutually exclusely) together to build apps the are both media rich and data rich, that are both beautiful and transactional, that include forms and visualization, that integrate with with back end systems from FMS to JMS to WebServices, that scale and are maintainable. We have a lot more work to do, but our aim is to enable seamless workflow for designers and developers to work together more closely and iteratively to build rich experiences. As we release Blaze and we have AS3 in both Flash and Flex, it will become easier still to integrate the two, and you will see more and more focus on workflow over time. For folks who thing Flex is just for "forms", check out: http://maps.yahoo.com/beta/ (built with Flex 1.5) http://www.harley-davidson.com/pr/gm/customizer/launchCustomizer.asp (Built with Flex 1.0) And take a look at how expressive Flex components can be at Ely's blog: http://www.quietlyscheming.com/blog/components/animated-dragtile-compone nt/ and http://www.quietlyscheming.com/blog/components/fisheye-component/ (requires Flash Player 9 beta 3). ---------------- "Should we have built a single Uber tool instead?" We sorta tried. For a while there we tried to make Flash MX all things to all people. We found we were not satisfying the designers and animators and we still had not reached the bar for acceptence by most developers. Focus matters a lot. A product can't have two design centers, two "souls". In 1996 Director was the world's leading multimedia authoring tool and Shockwave was doing incredibly on the Web. But we looked at the total opportunity and decided to both start Dreamweaver and focus deeply on the needs of professional web designers doing HTML as well as aquire FutureSplash, now Flash. While we had added web export ("Shockwave") to Director, we knew that it couldn't compete (for some uses) with a product like Flash that was designed from the ground up differently, and far more lightweight. In fact, back then, I was running the FreeHand product line at Macromedia (among other things)--should we have said, why add another vector graphics tool to our product line, lets just add a timeline to FreeHand? It would have been a frankenstein. I think the same is true of FlexBuilder and Flash. Yes, there is some overlap. But the core, the "soul" of the products, are different and will meet different needs. If we do our jobs, they will also work together beautifully. HTH, David Adobe > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf > Of Adam Pasztory > Sent: Tuesday, May 23, 2006 9:03 PM > To: Flashcoders mailing list > Subject: Re: [Flashcoders] Re: Flex vs. Flash IDE > > >>> Someone suggested that Adobe hasn't done a good job explaining the > difference between the two. I can't see how you can say > that. There has been a public beta available for over 6 > months and a site almost entirely devoted to it. The Samples > Explorer is as clear an explanation as any developer should > need. The only way to really understand the difference is to > attempt to build something with it. > > While I think the concept of a beta program is great, I spent > quite a few hours poring over the documentation, and followed > a few tutorials, and I did not find the clear explanations I > was hoping for. Maybe that makes me a bad developer. But I > assume Adobe wants to sell to bad developers as well as good > ones. :) This was a few months ago, so maybe things have improved. > > If I'm wrong, please point me to the documentation, FAQs, > etc. from Adobe that clearly explain the diferences between > Flex IDE and Flash IDE, or details about how to integrate > Flex into my workflow. Maybe this is all coming after the > release. Or maybe it's been added since I looked through the > labs site. Where is the practical tutorial for Flash > Developers who want to transition to Flex? > > I want to like Flex. I really do. I'm not trying to attack > any Flex developers or any of the smart people who work at > Macromedia/Adobe. I'm just sharing my personal observations > around it so far. There's enough contradictory info in this > thread alone to make me think they're not doing a good enough > job getting the message out. The ongoing success of Flash is > important to me personally, and to my career, so I that's why > I've felt the need to say this. > _______________________________________________ > Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com > To change your subscription options or search the archive: > http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders > > Brought to you by Fig Leaf Software > Premier Authorized Adobe Consulting and Training > http://www.figleaf.com http://training.figleaf.com > _______________________________________________ Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com To change your subscription options or search the archive: http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders Brought to you by Fig Leaf Software Premier Authorized Adobe Consulting and Training http://www.figleaf.com http://training.figleaf.com
