Hi,

I am a student about to finish university and thought I'd help myself out by learning actionscript 3.0 for potential jobs in the future. When i set out I was planning on using my new actionscript skills with Flash CS3, or perhaps simply using Flash CS3 to compile the script and build the enitre app in actionscript.

I am now nearing the end of an actionscript book and discover another technology Flex - it was mentioned at the beginning of the book but I had assumed it was simply an IDE to build actionscript projects. I now understand that there is another language to learn (MXML) if I want to get widely involved with Flex.

I am very confused as to which direction I should go in with limited time, what is going to be more useful in the future? What would prospective employers prefer skills in? If I stuck with using limited Flash with large amounts of actionscript and avoid MXML completely is this going to be less useful in the future? Is Flex the new Flash for developers with programming experience?

Is it unusual to build internet rich applications using actionscript alone? As I guess this is what I'd prefer to do, for practice but also because I have a some experience with software engineering with Java and thought that could come in handy.

Anyway sorry for the ramble... hope I make sense and look forward to some replies.

Cheers,
Ed

This post has been edited by skyhawk133: 18 Mar, 2008 - 06:17 PM

Lets see...

I actually got involved with object oriented programming through AS3 as well. I ended up with Java for my own reasons, but that is neither here nor there.

Assuming you learned AS3 the way it is intended to be taught now, as an object oriented language, you can now do most things with it in application development that you can do with other languages. I am familiar with what Flex is, but I have not used it myself. As far as I can tell, Flex is very similiar to a standard developers kit. Flex provides you with the libraries and API's you need to access using AS3 code, as well as a compiler. Flash CS3 also provides you with a means to draw, animate, etc. I believe that anything you can do in Flex you can do in Flash CS3, but CS3 is more expensive than Flex and if you can provide graphics using a 2D drawing class or external program, getting Flex makes sense.

MXML seems to be Flash's version of XML. XML stands for extensible markup language, but in reality it isn't a language like a programming language is. Instead it allows you to define data in a better way for other programs to read. You also have XML support in AS3 when developing in Flash CS3. If you want to develop applications, it is very likely that XML will be of use to you.

I won't comment on whether or not Flash is better or worse than other environments. I believe something like 95% of computers do have it installed though. I have seen many useful applications developed with Flash that are not specifically for entertainment. For example FlashGet is a halfway decent download manager. I know that Java is more common in business software than Flash, but that doesn't mean your manager wouldn't be ok with designing some applications in Flash.

Hope that helps.

This post has been edited by Steven Smith: 18 Mar, 2008 - 06:44 PM

Are you sure about this? I don't doubt that it is decent, I am just not sure that it is programmed in Flash (due to some obvious limitation, but I might be wrong here).

It doesn't look a lot like a flash application in this screenshot. Also, the wiki article says bad things about spyware which may or may not be correct.

To return to the topic at hand; Flex's specialty is in creating applications, in data presentation and user interaction. Flash can still do these things but it's scope is much wider, and so in my opinion more flexible.

Unless your interested purely in application development I would suggest learning Flash first, because of its all-encompassing nature. You can start with simple timeline driven animations, and then develop coding ability, object orientated design and application creation with Actionscript 3.

Once you're comfortable with Flash Flex is fairly easy to get into, and for data driven applications you may find yourself developing in Flex but incorporating animations and other graphical flourishes from Flash. In learning Flash, you will encounter XML, and from that MXML can be understood as a set of defined XML tags and attributes.

This post has been edited by thehat: 19 Mar, 2008 - 08:39 AM

Yep, you were right. I haven't used it in years and I never bothered to find out what it was written in, but associated the name to Flash software. Anyway, that is the only application I have run across that I thought was developed in Flash. I wasn't trying to endorse the software or comment on its usefulness.

This post has been edited by Steven Smith: 19 Mar, 2008 - 11:18 AM