

Ask News.YC: Anyone using Adobe Flex?  Do you like it? - ghiotion

I've got a (potential) job offer where they're evaluating switching from ColdFusion to Flex.  Seems like Flex is getting a lot of pub lately, but my sense is that it sucks.  ActionScript is cumbersome and difficult to learn; there's a lot of programming through xml, which I don't really care for.  Can anyone disabuse me of this notion?<p>For the record, I don't know anything about ColdFusion either.  But my sense is that it sucks too.
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bprater
Actionscript isn't a server-side language. It runs in the browser. So they are
seriously mistaken if they think they can replace Coldfusion with Flex/AS.
(And I'd question if I really wanted to work for a company that didn't know
this.)

What about Flex/AS3? The more time I spent with it, the more I keep saying,
"Whoa, this is a well-designed language/toolkit." Flex Builder, the editor, is
also well-designed.

You will struggle a bit to get over the learning curve, but if you appreciate
elegance in UI, you'll grow to really like it. Actionscript is not my first
choice in a programming language, but it is fully featured and plenty robust.

~~~
ghiotion
Do you run ColdFusion on the server side? If not, what are you using on the
backend?

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wallflower
A Flex Haiku I wrote:

it's more than just flash

enterprise level big apps

not just eye candy

Without knowing more about why they are moving from ColdFusion (and I assume
CFML) to Flex, I have to ask if they have a business driver. Flex will give
their application a new look (you can't beat the sexy look of vectorized
graphics)

AS3 is basically ECMAScript4, which is much better than AS2. The IDE is ok -
it's not going to make you rave about it. The compiler time will drive you
nuts (sometimes). The debugger is good. We don't really use the UI builder as
it does not fit our requirements. There is a lot of programming through
(m)xml. There are many little gotchas in AS3/MXML programming that consume
free time while you figure them out. We had to code several tools to generate
mediator-type objects for AS3 to Java.

~~~
ujeezy
I'll second the debugger, it's very nice to have. Is there any kind of
interactive console you can use to query specific attributes while in debug
mode? I hate having to walk down an object's hierarchy to find stuff.

~~~
wallflower
I usually just jump down through the rabbit-hole and drill down through the
object hierarchy in 'Variables', but you can add expressions (e.g. _myFooVar)
to watch, in the debugger IDE.

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ujeezy
Once I figured out when to use MXML (it's great for setting up layouts) and
when to use Actionscript (I try to use AS for most everything else), I was
happy with it: it gets the job done fast, it's object-oriented enough for my
purposes, and it's far easier for me to understand than the Flash timeline.
Being able to quickly produce AIR apps is another nice use for Flex.

I'd recommend starting with Flex Builder (based on Eclipse) which was much
easier to get setup than the commandline tools.

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hcho
Are these two substitutes? From my limited experience at
<http://www.this11.com> , Flex is for client side thecnology. Whereas
ColdFusion is a server side beast.

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utnick
I didn't think that it is that bad

I am by no means a flash flex expert but I used it on my latest app,
actionscript is pretty straightforward ( especially if you shell out for
flexdevelop ). The xml is annoying but manageable. Help is easy to get on
forums and #flex

You can download like a 2 month free trial of flexdevelop, make a small app
and see what you think.

~~~
ghiotion
I'm downloading the SDK now, which seems like it was released under a modified
GPL.

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rmason
Flex is tag based and compiles to flash and sits on the client and talks to
Coldfusion (or any other server side language) on the server.

If you have done javascript flex (or more properly Actionscript) will be easy
to pick up.

However if you don't like Rapid Application Development (or get paid for code
by the line) you will hate Coldfusion ;<)

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mattmaroon
We're using it for our site, and it's pretty much perfect for what we're
doing. There's really no better way to make something that's live, dynamic,
good-looking, and cross compatible in every browser.

Without knowing anything specific about it, I'd guess ColdFusion sucks given
the fact that it is the only Adobe product that almost nobody has used for any
new application since the Reagan administration.

~~~
ghiotion
what are you running on the backend?

~~~
mattmaroon
php

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rmason
Matt Maroon - I like your blog but buddy regarding Coldfusion you haven't got
a clue.

<http://www.gotcfm.com/thelist.cfm>

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flashgordon
Actually I started using flex for a custom project at work, to talk to a
server in C++. Makes life extremely easy (if you have the eclipse flex builder
plugin). Extremely well designed and the dev tools are fine too. Theyve put a
lot of thought into it. Documentation is pretty uptodate with lots of samples
online. The lack of a "wait" got me a bit scared at first but very easy to get
used to.

