BitchWhoCodes: Flex Productivity

September 15, 2006

Flex Productivity

I've read tons about how productive the flex environment is and how workflow is a dream - the lastest being Ted Patrick's blog entry.

I'm not about to proclaim Flex unproductive by any means, but I think those who haven't had the pleasure of delving into it need to know that its not miraculously going to transform you into this god of efficiency and productivity. If it did, I wouldn't be writing this blog entry- I'd be making fun of old dudes in banana hammocks off the coast of Florida while spending my afternoons tossing back salt rimmed margeritas.

Building a straightforward and relatively simple application - yes Flex is your best friend and you will be up and running in no time with a decent prototype to show to the world. You can then run along home early and enjoy the evening watching Everybody Loves Raymond re-runs and pondering the evolution of Velveeta.

But not all applications are simple. Not all are straightforward - and not all are meant to look like you pulled it off the shelf from the flex application aisle. Unfortunately, if you want to really customize your flex application by disguising the fact that its flex with a custom UI and graphics, be prepared to spend as much time in the checkout lane as you did shopping. People have been bitching about skinning Flex applications - they are bitching for a reason, and keep in mind, that Flex, not unlike Flash, it not without its own little lovable quirks to be discovered.

Having said all that, I love Flex. And admittedly, a standard brown bag unskinned Flex application still looks better than one created in Flash with the v2 component set. But don't be fooled, building a robust and full featured application takes time, even with all the goodies the Flex framework provides to you.

The Flex environment provides a great developer workflow - add Subversion into the equation and your rocking. However, remember the two mantras of interactive development - 1) It's not multimedia until you've done it twice and 2) Know what is the right tool to provide the proper solution. I still find it suprising how many still trip over #2 - using a tool because they want to rather than they should.

Definitely believe the Flex hype, but don't worship it. Don't make the mistake of buying in fully without putting it through the ringer.

Posted by bitch at September 15, 2006 02:25 PM

Comments

I hear you load and clear and I couldn't agree more. I've got some Flash form based apps sitting on the shelf and they would be ideal candidates for a flex2 migration. But you know what, I don't know where to start. I know my way around Flash well enough but tossing remote data back and forth in Flex (and massaging it a bit while on the client) seems to be a whole different ball game...

Mountain, here I come.

Posted by: Stefan Richter at September 15, 2006 03:47 PM

Yes do not worship it! Application development is still application development. At Cynergy Systems we were turning out really large RIA apps for SAP and others in 5-6 weeks full stack on J2EE. All the apps had a custom, non-flex ui. You just can't do that with other tools.

My post on productivity was simply to show my expierience. TagTV is not a complex application, the source is available and you can see what is happening. I wish I had builds of each stage of completion to show. Next app I will do that and spit out my stats based on subversion time/date stamps on the head revisions.

Having programmed in VB,.NET,Python,PHP,Flash, Flex takes the cake in terms of productive development. Working at the component level is just more efficient.

BitchWhoCodes, email me at tpatrick@adobe.com. Great Post!

Cheers,

Ted Patrick

Posted by: Ted Patrick at September 15, 2006 04:39 PM

In Aussie-speak they're also known as "Dickstickers."

Posted by: Brent Bonet at September 15, 2006 05:42 PM