Question

i am starting to study FLEX. i have only flex sdk. So can i start study only using that. If so please suggest me the link to go through..

But still, Using an editor will minimize our work and will create the code by its own. So as a new learner it would be tedious to understand and also hard to learn new things…

Answer 1

Yes.

Just a bit of background: Flex Builder (a.k.a Flash Builder), the mxmlc compiler (free) and Flash CSx all compile Actionscript code into SWF files and/or AIR files. Flash CSx is a design-centric tool with a ultra-simplistic coding editor built in (not much more useful than Notepad); Flex Builder/Flash Builder is a full-blown programmer’s IDE (based on Eclipse); the mxmlc compiler is a free command-line tool that compiles Actionscript files into SWF and AIR files. (You have to use your own editor to write the source files.)

MXML is an xml language that acts as a shortcut for Actionscript. You can code in mxml instead of Actionscript and the compiler will convert your mxml into Actionscript before compiling. You can’t use mxml as a shorthand for all AS coding. Mostly you can use it as a substitute for UI coding and as a way of binding data to UI elements. The compiler converts the mxml into Actionscript classes and then compiles the Actionscript classes (the ones created as mxml and the ones coded natively in Actionscript) into bytecode. The Flash virtual machine (e.g. the browser plugin) runs the bytecode.

Currently, you can code both Actionscript and mxml — and then compile using Flex Builder/Flash Builder or the mxmlc compiler (which is free). Flash CSx can does not understand mxml, so you it can only compile straight-forward Actionscript.

Note: there are third-party tools, such as FDT that can also be used to write and compile Actionscript and mxml.

The language Actionscript has been revised several times. After a brief phase when it was a proprietary language, it morphed into something much like Javascript. Then, with AS 2.0, it became much more like Java — and it continues in this direction with AS 3.0. (its syntax is very similar to Java and, like Java, it is class-based).

There are a core set of Actionscript classes that are available to you in Flash CSx, Flex Builder/Flash Builder and the free sdk. There are additional classes, known as the Flex Framework, which are available to you in Flex Builder/Flash Builder and in the sdk — but not in Flash CSx. These extra classes add new visual components, such as a datagrid, an advanced UI-layout engine, and a framework for data-binding.

You can use the Flex Framework without the Flex Builder IDE (which is going to renamed, in the next version to Flash Builder).

Compiling without Flex Builder

You can also use Flex Builder/Flash Builder without using the Flex Framework — meaning you can program in the IDE and use only Actionscript classes that aren’t part of the framework (the classes you’d use if you programmed in Flash and not Flex Builder).

You can choose to use or not use mxml.

You can even use mxml to auto-generate Actionscript that’s not part of the Flex Framework (e.g. your own custom classes).

Using mxml for your own classes

Good luck!
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