Flash or Flex?

[velcrobandits]

So, a long time ago I used to program games in Flash 6. I'd really like to get back into it, but after going through some tutorials I'm just a little confused on how it works now. So, some actionscript 3 tutorials tell you to use flex ( which I guess is like an IDE/compiler?). This language looks a lot like Java. Other tutorials don't say anything about Flex and talk more about Flash proper. This language looks a lot like old ac I'm used to and deals a lot with event handling and user input and stuff. So, long story short, which is the proper route for games? I don't know for sure but I guess Flex scripts would be embedded in HTML sites and use like the flash graphics library. But does the main Flash program work the way it used to, with code placed in frames and objects? Sorry for the verbose post... If all I need is Flex, I'll just get that without investing in Flash. To distill the question into a practical form: is a typical game on kongregatr written in flex, flash or a combination of both? Thanks!

[dialectric]

Hi,

If you search the forums here, you will come up with several posts highlighting the differences/advantages of Flash IDE vs Flex. One example is: http://www.actionscript.org/forums/showthread.php3?t=255205&highlight=flash+flex

In summary, Flash IDE if you want to edit graphics in Flash, Flex if you want a more stripped-down programming enviornment, and are comfortable with OOP. The as3 code is essentially the same in both.



- dialectric

[velcrobandits]

Thanks! I had read a lot of that stuff before but I just couldn't wrap my head around the differences. Finally just decided to jump in and try both and I get it now. Looks like I'll be using Flash Builder for now; I'll see how easy/hard it is to achieve the same kind of animation effects. Thanks a lot!

[Eralmidia]

Also, if you end up using Flash IDE, give FlashDevelop a try (http://www.flashdevelop.org/), which gives you a nice coding environment in adition to what Flash IDE gives you.