Flex 3 in 2007 plus some clarity...
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Published
Thursday, January 25, 2007
at
6:46 AM
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I wanted to clear up some misconceptions about Flex 3. The release is not right around the corner but will arrive in late 2007. The Flex 3 release cycle will be very different, actually it is wildly different than what Adobe has done before. We are working to get the development community involved in the release to assist in shaping features and raising the release quality.
As you will see, we are changing how we make software and how we interact with the development community. To make Flex 3 great, we need your help, it is as simple as that.
More to come,
Ted :)
Forgive my ignorance, but is the Flex 3 project a completely new version of the Flex framework, or is it just a new version of the Flex Builder tool?
Flex 3 is both. The release includes Flex Builder 3.0 and Flex SDK 3.0.
Ted
This may be too soon to ask but I will ask anyway. Will there be a solid upgrade path for all code in Flex 2.0 to Flex 3.0? Will AS3 change?
Seamless transition is the goal from Flex 2 to 3. AS3 will not change as a language as it is ECMA standard but there will be new classes in Flex.
More to come on that.
Ted :)
So Ted, am I right in assuming Flex 3 should largely run from FP9 onwards or are there plans to leverage a new version of the player?
Just to clarify a response to that first question...Flex 2 was a 'completely new' version of the framework, in that we rebuilt it from the ground up. Flex 3, on the otherhand, will be an evolution of the Flex 2 framework. It _will_ include lots of new improvments and features in the framework, but we're not starting over from scartch this time (there's no need to ;)
Ely Greenfield
Flex SDK
Flex 2 and Flex 3 will compile SWF version 9 and run in any Flash Player 9 or higher until the end of time or computers as we know them.
Ted - For Flex Builder 3.0 I'd really like to see drag and drop support in the design view outline.
I use design view extensively to build the major components of my apps and I consistently find myself wanting this feature when moving containers around a crowded stage.
Hello Ted,
Could Adobe PLEASE try to make it an agile, quick release process for Flex?
I really don't want to wait years for the next release. Big software companies seem to operate on massive, slow release schedules.
I'd rather have faster, smaller incremental updates and new functionality than massive unwieldy releases.
Spending years in development just isn't practical any more - witness Vista and SQL Server.
It has been great having Flex but don't let its momentum be lost to a long, slow, tired development cycle.
Agile, quick, point releases of new functionality please.
Thanks
Andrew
I wonder what the pricing for upgrades will be?
If I buy Flex 2.0 today, is there some reduced cost for version 3.0 a few months from now?
Andrew,
Agile releases are a complete nightmare for big companies. If you need exciting functionality that isn't present in Flex, write your own component.
Flex needs to be rock solid stable. However it also needs to be all things to all men.
However you can write your own components/download from riaforge etc. if it does something you don't want.
Adam
There will certainly be an upgrade path for Flex 2.0 to Flex 3.0 consistent with all Adobe products. The release is not right around the corner and pricing/upgrade information will be available closer to release.
ted :)
With Flex 3, I'd love to see Adobe work with some ASP.NET developers to make Flex and .NET bosom buddies. As we've seen, even Microsoft knows the Flash technology is the best!
Why not provide a plugin for Visual Studio?
Plugin for VS? Ugh! No! Stick with Eclipse and let WPF/XAML/C#/Expression sort themselves out...
I agree Flex and ASP.NET should have an easy and a more straight forward way of integration.
Mack
I disagree keep .NET and Flex on opposite ends of the spectrum. I would like to see more of a marriage between Flex and PHP. Since everyone that is developing web applications now are using PHP.
Hello Ted
I do really look forward to a well integrated and streamlined workflow between Flex 3 and Flash CS3.
It's highly unlikely since it's tied directly the ECMA standard, but it would be nice to see the following changes:
**real** overridden methods of the java/c# world, and getting rid of the horrible current rendition of locking down access, parameters, and return types. At the very least, allow additional parameters to be added. As it currently stands, polymorphic functions can only truly be implemented in a composite model even when inheritance is the logical choice. I'd be curious to know who decided that should be removed from AS2 (and what coffee they were drinking).
overloaded methods.
Enumerations.
If anyone sits on the standards board or if anyone is listening at adobe for the love of cats & dogs please swim with the fish (ie other programming languages, syntax, etc) not against them, otherwise the same hard lessons of 'uniqueness' are not easily adopted by the masses (ie actionscript 4).
Maybe we can hold out hope in AS4.
I use design view extensively to build the major components of my apps and I consistently find myself wanting this feature when moving containers around a crowded stage.