Over the last several days there has been a ton of exciting news related to Flash & Flex…
First, Adobe has decided on renaming Flex Builder to Flash Builder! I know when I first heard this I was thinking WTF?This completely screws up everything… especially talking about Flash verse Flex. For everyone who has a complaint about the changes, Lee Brimelow has several answers to these questions on his blog. There is a lot more great feedback from the Flex community down in the comments section of the post.
Next, Adobe has a tentative schedule for the Flex 4 / ColdFusion 9 world tour dates starting June 1! Visit Ted Patrick’s blog to view the lengthy list.
Sound off…. what are your thoughts on these changes?
The only people saying WTF to the Flex Builder name change to Flash Builder are people that are new to Flex and are trying to charge a premium for Flash work with a Flex label. I’ve been doing Flex since Flex 2 beta, this is a long overdue change that will hopefully finally stop the “Flash verses Flex” talk and make people stop thinking things like “Flex is an unproven technology”. There is a place for for pure ActionScript 3 projects and there is a place for the Flex framework. What there isn’t a place for is confusing Flex as a new technology or confusing Flash and Flex and interchangeable, as they are not. There are pretty defined use cases for both, if you can’t figure them out then perhaps you are not completely familiar with both technologies yet.
Omar, I completely and absolutely disagree with you. I have a serious problem with the name Flash Builder as I’m an Adobe Flex specialist and have been for the last 3 years. I only work with Flex applications, not Flash movies.
Think of a client who has absolutely no clue about the different technologies; they have a Flash Builder project they want to be worked on and they post a job posting looking for a Flash expert. They go through the screening process and when they’ve finally chosen a Flash CS4 specialist, they find out that it’s actually a Flash Builder project. That Flash CS4 specialist has never used Flash Builder and is now no longer qualified, and the client loses their time and money. In fact, you, yourself supported this fact with your comment by saying “What there isn’t a place for is confusing Flex as a new technology or confusing Flash and Flex and interchangeable, as they are not.”
Furthermore, think of people who have no experience with Flash and only with Flex – I’m one of them. I very rarely use Flash and I have no idea how to get around the timeline, but I’ve built several enterprise level applications for big names. Instead of being a Flex specialist, now I’m a Flash Builder Specialist – I wonder how many conversations I’m going to have about people wanting Flash work done but explaining that it’s not Flash, it’s Flash Builder – explaining the large differences between the two. (and there are a lot, as you very well know)
Please, try to explain to a non-technical user what the difference between a “Flash” and a “Flash Builder” project is. Seriously, tell me if your client leaves more confused than he came in with. It’s already hard enough to explain what Flex is, and renaming it to Flash is going to make it more confusing.
I’ve never come across anyone who has said that Flex is an unproven technology, and even if I do in the future, that’s pretty easy to dispel. (Just explaining that Flex is a framework built on Flash and that it’s aimed more at programmers pretty much dispels these concerns)
As a Flex developer, I shouldn’t have to learn how to use Flash to stay competitive. I build rich internet applications, not animated designs – I’m a programmer, not a designer.