Hi,

I'm currently researching Flex as part of a presentation and have read a lot
of background information on Flex. However, I'm still confused as to what
exactly Flex offers that Flash doesn't. I've read that Flex MXML is converted
to ActionScript on compilation. To my understanding ActionScript is the
development language for Flash. Is Flex then a new set of classes that
simplifies the development of Flash?
What does Flex include in ActionScript that didn't exist pre-Flex?

Thanks.

There's nothing you can do with one tool that you can't do with the other.

But, this is like saying that there's nowhere you can go with a Jeep that you
can't go with a mountain bike. They're different tools, suited to different
purposes.

The Flash environment is better for graphically-heavy applications. Simple
games without a lot of internal logic, animations, displays...whizzy things.

The Flex tools are better suited to code-heavy applications. Traditional
applications with user input forms, lots of low-level disk or network I/O and
calculations...serious things.

There are of course applications that fall into the gray area between. A desk
calculator applet, for example: not much code, but not very complicated
graphics, either. You could build it in either tool with about the same amount
of difficulty.

Flex was created because programmers made it very clear to Adobe that Flash
makes a poor programming environment. That's really what it comes down to: if
a program requires the skills of a real programmer to build -- as opposed to
the limited scripting skills of the more technical sort of graphic artist --
you should probably build it in Flex.

Thanks for the reply, that makes more sense.

Am I right in saying though that ActionScript, an OO language, is what Flash is developed in. What does Flex bring exactly then to ActionScript?

"spitbag" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> wrote in message
news:gdvtnu$6e5$1@forums.macromedia.com...
> Thanks for the reply, that makes more sense.
>
> Am I right in saying though that ActionScript, an OO language, is what
> Flash is developed in. What does Flex bring exactly then to ActionScript?
>

The best way for you to figure it out is to produce one of the "Getting
Started" projects in each. The first thing you'll notice is that the nature
of the Flash Getting Started projects is _completely_ different than the
Flex ones. Then you'll notice that the methodology you'll use is completely
different.

For me, Flex offers a lot of support for dealing with data. For one thing,
it has a whole separate data type built just for handling data--the
ListCollectionView. What the ListCollectionView does is provide
notifications every time a collection of data is modified in any way. It
also provides built-in methods for sorting and filtering the information in
that collection. The _vast_ majority of Flex components are built to accept
a collection of data and display that data in a way that is more meaningful
for the user, then allow the user to modify and interact with the data.
And, though Flex has a ton of additional capabilities, I think the heart of
Flex is manipulating and displaying data.

Flash, on the other hand, does a completely crap job of dealing with
data--it simply doesn't have the built-in support for looking at data over
time, sorting it, or filtering it. I recently wrapped a third-party Flash
control in a Flex component, and it was much harder than it should have been
because the Flash world is completely bankrupt of any ideas about how to
handle data. Their primary use case was that you point it to an external
XML file and that's the extent of what "data driven" means in their world.
Using the words "strongly typed objects" on their forums resulted in virtual
blank stares.

Flash also doesn't have built-in support for remote objects, either. In
Flex, you can have a "live" connection to a data object that lives on the
server. If that object changes, the data in any Flex program that's
connected to it will change as well.

And, let's face it, the Flash IDE is pretty much set up to discourage you
from writing AS at all. You'll do 4-5 times more typing and looking things
up in Flash than you will in Flex Builder, and that's probably an
underestimate.

-Amy

[q]Originally posted by: spitbagAm I right in saying
though that ActionScript, an OO language, is what Flash is developed in.[/q]No,
not really.

When you work in Flash, you aren't necessarily creating ActionScript code
under the hood. Some of the things you do in Flash -- setting up an animation
path, for example -- have no exact equivalent in the ActionScript world.
ActionScript in Flash is a way to script graphical objects you create in the
Flash GUI more than anything.

When I said above that you can do anything in Flex that you can do in Flash, I
didn't mean that you always used the same mechanisms. For that animation path
example, in pure ActionScript you'd either build the motion procedurally, or
with some kind of motion capture system. Either way, it's a lot of code to
mimic what you can easily do in the Flash environment with a few simple mouse
movements and clicks.

The converse is also true: the Flash environment doesn't have any exact
equivalent to MXML or to Flex Builder's GUI designer, debugger, and profiler.
Its text editor is also a joke compared to Eclipse, which Flex Builder is built
upon. Again, none of these facts prevents you from doing something in Flash
that you could do in Flex. It's just a question of which tool makes it easier.

[q]What does Flex bring exactly then to ActionScript?[/q]Flex is a library of
ActionScript components, the MXML language for building ActionScript
declaratively, and a set of tools -- the command line stuff, Flex Builder, etc
-- to let you work with the Flex libraries and MXML.

>>Flash, on the other hand, does a completely crap job of dealing with data
Flex, on the other hand does a completely crap job of dealing with animation.
And a completely crap job of dealing with assets and building a gui with nested
movieclips containing animation(s).

>>Their primary use case was that you point it to an external XML file and
that's the extent of what "data driven" means in their world. Using the words
"strongly typed objects" on their forums resulted in virtual blank stares.
Just like in the Flex 'realm' developers have written all kinds of libraries
to provide additional 'features'. Someone came up with Degrafa for Flex and
another one wrote a wrapper for remoting in Flash. I don't know about you, but
I highly respect guys like Grant Skinner and Colin Moock who both primarily
code for Flash. In the end, the result matters, not if you know what a strongly
typed object is. I've seen amazing projects that were done with code on the
timeline and I've seen projects that were done the 'programmer way' and made me
feel sad... Equally I've seen designers write code a programmer could only wish
he or she wrote.

>>The Flash environment is better for graphically-heavy applications. Simple
games without a lot of internal logic, animations, displays...whizzy things.
>>The Flex tools are better suited to code-heavy applications. Traditional
applications with user input forms, lots of low-level disk or network I/O and
calculations...serious things.

That probably doesn't even scratch the surface of when and how to use the
Flash and Flex tools. In fact, this is in my opinion complete nonsense.

In the end the OP probably answered its own question best: Is Flex then a new
set of classes that simplifies the development of Flash?
Well, almost. The Flex framework is an extra set of classes on top of the
existing Flash framework of classes. Both are organised in what is called
'packages'. The Flash framework consists of the flash. and fl. packages, see
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/AS3LCR/F...0.0/index.html
The Flex framework consists of the flash. and mx. packages, see
http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/3/langref/
And you do not develop 'Flash', you develop swf content that can be
interpreted by the Flash Player plugin.

Ultimately ActionScript is what drives it all and you will learn how to use
the different tools along the way. There is no ready made answer when to use
Flash or Flex. Some things can be done better in Flex, other things are more
efficiently done in the Flash IDE. Using them together is also a nice
solution...

I'd like to add that you can get the best of both worlds by using the Flex component kit for Flash CS3 that turns a movieclip into a Flex component.

In general, Flex came into existance because creating "applications" in Flash
was a nightmare.

Flash is great for creating animations, but for event based applications that
step away from the timeline Flex is the way to go.

There are APIs that blur the line and allow you to still work in Flash and
create Flex custom components, but the fact remains, Flash and Flex at their
root have a very different optimal target goal in mind. That's why Flex was
conceived.