Thanks for the post Dave. Cairngorm sounds a lot like PureMVC which does away with events and implements a global command structure. So far it's appealing although my first run in with it was under bad conditions. A client of a friend had mangled it something fierce before he was brought in at which point he brought me in to implement deep linking. It was ugly to say the least. I have however heard great things about it since then. My gut says I should know how to do this stuff on my own before I go relying too heavily on tools that prevent me from getting to know the inner workings intimately.
It's just tough to esitmate flash/flex work effictively anymore without a framework involved it seems. Clients don't have the time or budget for builds from scratch. Flash used to be so fun but now it's a constant learning curve. ugg. Interestingly enough I looked up the cairngorm site and saw a link to this blog post made just yesterday: http://www.anandvardhan.com/2008/11/13/popular-flex-frameworks/ This should also be informative. http://www.insideria.com/2008/11/new-poll-which-flex-framework.html On Fri, Nov 14, 2008 at 1:52 PM, David Hershberger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>wrote: > We have been using Adobe Flex for the past year and have really liked it. > It would be hard to call it "blazing" and "bloat" does seem like it might > apply to some extent, but on the other hand it does so many nice things for > us it is hard to argue with. MXML is very powerful, but there is certainly > a big learning curve. For basic stuff, buttons and containers and text, > it's easy to get started. There are lots of subtle details though, so when > you start wanting to do things in ways the Flex authors didn't anticipate > it > often takes experimentation to find a way that works. The Flex framework > code is open source at least, so you can always dig into that and see what > it's doing. > > We have also used Cairngorm, with mixed results. Cairngorm doesn't really > give you much code, it is mostly a set of design patterns. Some of the > important code it does give is a "controller" which connects Cairngorm > Events to Cairngorm Commands. Cairngorm events inherently know their > dispatcher, which is a singleton, so you can just fire off events like so: > new SaveGameEvent(game, user).dispatch(); > and the controller connects that to the appropriate SaveGameCommand. We've > come to the conclusion that Cairngorm is great for situations where most > user actions imply immediate communications with a server, but not so > useful > for situations where user actions are just manipulating data internal to > the > .swf. We have ended up using Cairngorm Events and Commands just on the > networking side of our app, and for everything else we do more of a basic > Model/View pattern. > > I don't believe Cairngorm relies on Flex, but Flex gives you "data binding" > which works very nicely with Cairngorm. Flex data binding lets you mark > certain state variables with [Bindable] and then the compiler builds > data-change events for you. Then your view mxml classes use the data > binding syntax like <Label text="{game.description}"/> and the view updates > automagically whenever the Game's description field changes. A Cairngorm > command might query a server and then the server-response-handler in the > command can set game.description. > > Dave > > On 11/14/08, Joel Stransky <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > Hello, > > So I'm trying to nail down a work flow for building flash sites (read: > not > > flash applications) in as3. I had just about mastered fast seo friendly > as2 > > sites when as3 came out and now that I'm making a concerted effort to > > modernize my skills I feel like I'm starting from scratch in many ways. > > > > Enter frameworks. So far I've looked at > > Gaia<http://www.gaiaflashframework.com/index.php>, > > PureMVC <http://puremvc.org/content/view/67/178/>, > > Mate<http://mate.asfusion.com/>and Enterprise > > Architect <http://www.sparxsystems.com/products/ea/index.html> (please > add > > any others I haven't listed) > > On the upside, I like the idea of rapid development and reduced monotony. > > But the most important thing to me is extremely lightweight blazing fast > > flash using the least amount of bloat. In a perfect scenario, I don't > want > > extra file size due to wrappers of core commands. > > > > So, assuming I'm comfortable with the file size/rapid development trade > off > > with one of these packages, my concern then becomes one of dependency and > > learning curve. After learning a new API, am I going to have to hack or > > work > > around it for those interesting situations that always seem to pop up? > What > > if something major changes on the flashplayer and my chosen framework > > doesn't address it? I fear becoming too dependent on a 3rd party api. > > > > I'd really like to know what you guys are using, any development horror > > stories you have because of it as well as any insight you can provide > about > > the concerns I've listed. > > > > Thanks for your time. > > > > -- > > --Joel Stransky > > stranskydesign.com > > _______________________________________________ > > Flashcoders mailing list > > Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com > > http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders > > > _______________________________________________ > Flashcoders mailing list > Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com > http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders > -- --Joel Stransky stranskydesign.com _______________________________________________ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders
