Question

Question

Alright, I’m confused by all the buzzwords and press release bingo going on.

• What is the relationship between flash and flex:
  • Replace flash (not really compatible)
  • Enhance flash
  • The next version of flash but still basically compatible
  • Separate technology altogether
  • ???
• If I’m starting out in Flash now, should I just skip to Flex?

Follow up

Ok, so what I’m hearing is that there’s three different parts to the puzzle:

• Flash
  • The graphical editor used to make ‘Flash Movies’, ie it’s an IDE that focuses on the visual aspect of ‘Flash’ (Officially Flash CS3?)
  • The official name for the display plugins (ie, ‘Download Flash Now!’)
  • A general reference to the entire technology stack
  • In terms of the editor, it’s a linear timeline based editor, best used for animations with complex interactivity.
• Actionscript
  • The ‘Flash’ programming language
• Flex
  • An Adobe Flash IDE that focuses on the coding/programming aspect of ‘Flash’ (Flex Builder?)
  • A Flash library that enhances Flash and makes it easier to program for (Flex SDK?)
  • Is not bound to a timeline (as the Flash IDE is) and so ‘standard’ applications are more easily accomplished.

Is this correct?

-Adam

Answer 1

Adobe Flex Builder is Adobe’s IDE for developing applications that will run in the Flash plugin. The Flex SDK refers to the libraries that developers uses to write the applications.

Essentially, the term ‘Flex’ is the development side and ‘Flash’ is the run time side of Adobe’s technology.

Correction: The term ‘Flash’ is also used to refer to the Flash IDE which designers use.