Flex: looking for advice

[jkok2000]

Hi,

I am currently working on a MVC web application, and already have a mix of flash and DHTML at the front end (we use struts on the back-end). Macromedia Flex seems a very cool technology to fit perfectly into MVC, but I have a couple of questions :

1. I haven't seen many people making a pure flash website for web applications. They'd rather take the pain of hacking JS+CSS. Any obvious reasons?

2. Has anyone had any experience in Flex? How is it comparing to regular JSP view layer (stability, richness in functionalities, performance, etc)?

Thanks a lot in advance!

Tim

[pan69]

1. I haven't seen many people making a pure flash website for web applications. They'd rather take the pain of hacking JS+CSS. Any obvious reasons?

For some reason people in the Internet front-end application business seem to stick with what they know. I guess this is because many of them do not have a professional software engineering training. Most of them are hobbists who got a job doing some simpel HTML stuff and then took it from there. They do not want to change, because change is a treat to them (learning new stuff is difficult for them, and oh my, they have to read books...!)

2. Has anyone had any experience in Flex? How is it comparing to regular JSP view layer (stability, richness in functionalities, performance, etc)?

I´ve used Flex. At first I did´t like it. Everything that´s possible with Flex I could do with pure Flash so why would I buy a $16000 technology. After using I it for a while I realized the speed with which you can create full blown applications (no Flex is not ment to make pretty animations). the stabilty is good. The richness in functionalty is great, especially if you know Flash very well (create your own components). And the performance is also pretty OK. No complaints so far...

[sleekdigital]

For some reason people in the Internet front-end application business seem to stick with what they know. I guess this is because many of them do not have a professional software engineering training. Most of them are hobbists who got a job doing some simpel HTML stuff and then took it from there. They do not want to change, because change is a treat to them (learning new stuff is difficult for them, and oh my, they have to read books...!)

This is ammusing, but also a generalization. Sometimes making a front end with JS + CSS is just the right choice for the given situation.

[jkok2000]

Originally Posted by sleekdigital

This is ammusing, but also a generalization. Sometimes making a front end with JS + CSS is just the right choice for the given situation.

Could you be more specific? My guess is that if the site doesn't need to be very interactive (but who doesn't want it? ) JS+CSS would be a right choice?

[pan69]

Originally Posted by sleekdigital

This is ammusing, but also a generalization. Sometimes making a front end with JS + CSS is just the right choice for the given situation.

Professionality has nothing to do with the technology you use. If read my initial reply again you will notice that I talking about the people ¨using¨ the technology and not the choice of the technology it self.

[jrk_productions]

I have seen more good webpages running on css + JS than I have flash. Currently I think flash presents too much problems in the time it takes to make it, VS the output (and the fact that most people can't just edit it is obviously a problem for some.), also there is some problems that will keep people away from flash like the text problems, etc.

[sleekdigital]

Professionality has nothing to do with the technology you use. If read my initial reply again you will notice that I talking about the people ¨using¨ the technology and not the choice of the technology it self.

That's an intersting distinction. Somehow someone who chooses to use the technology is different from someone who .... uses the technology.

Professionality ?? Is that a word ??

Hehe .. don't take me too seriously pan .. just giving you a hard time

[pan69]

Originally Posted by sleekdigital

That's an intersting distinction. Somehow someone who chooses to use the technology is different from someone who .... uses the technology.

No, it means that when you use a certain technology it doesn't mean you are doing the right thing. It means you can apply a technology the right way or not. Usually when a technology is applied in a bad way it is usually because of the incompetance of the user applying it, not the technology itself.

But we're drifting off... The original first question was:
1. I haven't seen many people making a pure flash website for web applications. They'd rather take the pain of hacking JS+CSS. Any obvious reasons?

If you are really good in applying HTML/JS/CSS, and Flash (or Flex for that matter) is new to you, would you just make the switch? What I basicly ment in my first post was that a proffesional software engineer can look beyond technology much easier then a none trained professional (and by none trained proffesional I mean a long time user of some technology). When a trained proffesional looks at a problem he/she can usually look at it without projecting it onto a direct solution. For example, someone who's realy good in HTML/JS/CSS will always solve problems using these technologies without looking somewhere else.

Hehe .. don't take me too seriously pan .. just giving you a hard time

That's oke. I just ramble on and on...

[jkok2000]

Thanks for all your help. I will start testing water by writing some simple prototypes. Yes, oh my, I have to read books