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I'm seeking advice regarding adobe flex which has been currently incubated by Apache. Is Flex going to end up dead?

In my organization I have been offered two options: either move to HTML5 technology, or choose another platform such as Android or iOS, which my office currently has. I currently work in Flex 4.6 which is thoroughly enjoyable and motivating to use. I do have an interest to learn Adobe Edge and Muse; these technologies enable developers to create both web and mobile apps.

This could be my last day with the Flex team; I may be repositioned to develop on Android or iOS. I want to be using a technology which allows you to build both web and mobile apps. Can anyone suggest a better choice of technology and/or framework?

tshepang
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Dinesh
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    if i were you, i'd go to HTML5 development, or related platforms. i rarely see people in flash nowadays. even people i know that develop on flash are now moving using HTML5. even i myself came from Flex. however, like what programmers used to say: choose the right tools for the job. HTML5 and Flash are different in many ways, one better than the other in some aspects. consider things that one or the other can or cannot do. – Joseph Jan 30 '12 at 20:27
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    ded as dodo!!!!!!!!!!!! – SuperUberDuper Nov 19 '18 at 08:02

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just need a suggestion regarding adobe flex which has been currently incubating by Apache. Is Flex going to end up??

Is Flex going to die? I doubt it! There is an active community around the Apache Flex Project and there are ongoing endeavors to do things such as decouple Flex from the Flash/AIR runtimes so the framework can easily port to other technologies (such as HTML5 compliant browsers).

Will Flex become less relevant in the future? It might, but it's hard to say.

In my organization, i have been given two kind of options which is either move to HTML5 technology or to some other platform like android or xcode which my office currently has.

In this case, the future of Flex doesn't matter. You have a mandate to move. (Unless you want to make a political play to stay with Flex).

I personally see significant opportunities over the next five years in iOS development, Android Development, and HTML5 development. What are the opportunities in your area? Which of those three options interest you most? Answer that question and your decision will be easy.

I do have an interest to learn Adobe Edge and Muse which is a part of HTML5 technology where people can develop both web and mobile app(just heard).

Keep in mind that Adobe Edge and Muse are just HTML development tools-currently in development--by Adobe. Learning them is not the same as learning HTML; and learning HTML is not the same as learning those tools.

I want to be in a technology where I can build both web and mobile app..

Then you probably want HTML5. Android and iOS development are focused solely on development of Native applications, not browser based applications.

Give me one strong reason that flex will rock again from Apache, so that I can speak with my guys. Your suggestions needed?? Thanks in advance..

There are a lot of smart people involved in the Apache Flex Project--including myself and some people that Adobe put full timer on the project. I have no doubt the Apache Flex contributors can, and will, do great things. But, it remains to be seen if the enterprise market will accept Flex in this new form (or not). Most clients I talk to are sticking with it and will re-evaluate their technology choices as needed.

Maxime Lorant
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JeffryHouser
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    +1 for believing in the apache project. I personally am totally annoyed with the "Flex is dead" hype. Adobe decided to stop developing a mobile runtime. **That's it.** It doesn't mean there are no longer any people working in Flex, nor does it mean you won't be able to use it anywhere. The only thing that's changed is that Android devices now have the same problem as iOS devices, which means no web support. But you can still deploy AIR binaries to both platforms, and there will be a Flash Player for browsers, too. Sorry for the long comment, I had to get it out. – weltraumpirat Jan 30 '12 at 23:02
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    I feel like a broken record, but why another downvote? – JeffryHouser Sep 28 '12 at 13:53
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    @www-flextras-com, you just mentioned that there are attempts to decouple Flex from the Flash/AIR and make it run into HTML5 compliant browsers. Can you please provide a link? Honestly, it is something I can only dream about! – Ivan Zamylin Sep 28 '12 at 22:00
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    @IvanZamylin For starters, read up on Falcon-JS: http://blogs.adobe.com/bparadie/2011/11/19/what-is-falconjs/ . There has also been some talk about this on the Apache Flex dev list ( http://incubator.apache.org/flex/mailing-lists.html ) or the archives ( http://markmail.org/search/+list:org.apache.incubator.flex-dev ). I understand all such endeavors are either speculation or in very early experimental stages. – JeffryHouser Sep 28 '12 at 22:27
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    I'm with weltraumpirat, technologies don't just "die" very often. That's something people with ulterior motives say to discourage others. Adobe has done the same thing IBM did with Eclipse many years ago. Of course now "nobody" uses Eclipse right? Miserable failure! Because IBM made it open source, and it's FREE! Er, oops, did I say "nobody"? Yeah, I meant the other thing... Geeky fear mongers peddling trash hype and disinformation make me sick.. – Mifune Nov 14 '12 at 22:33
  • I think people really need to differentiate between what's the topic here. Sure, for desktop apps, Flex isn't dead and still a great option, but for mobile? I don't see it. Too much baggage which makes it bloated, thus slow. For small apps its fine, but go retina iPad and you'll quickly see the flaws of Flex, or any AS3 mobile framework for that matter. They just don't scale well, same for Stage3D if you want to use it for an enterprise application. I'd say go native or go home! – AlBirdie Jan 25 '13 at 07:33
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    @Al_Birdy When you talk of scale are you referring to performance or resolution/DPI? I know plenty of people who have had success with AIR on Mobile. My Flex based game runs well on both original iPad and Retina iPad. Plenty of people love the mobile Flextras components too. – JeffryHouser Jan 25 '13 at 16:39
  • @www.Flextras.com, solely talking about performance. Not saying that the resolution scaling always works perfectly. I'm not denying that people have success with AIR applications on mobile, especially with games, but for serious enterprise development, I don't see Flex as a viable option. The more stuff you put on the display list, the less performance you'll end up with. In retrospect of the last 15 months of developing an enterprise Flex mobile app I seriously think that we would have had more success simply choosing a target platform and go native. – AlBirdie Jan 28 '13 at 10:47
  • Also, developing with the mobile framework required a lot of fiddling around with it to make it work, thus wasting time to bend an inmature framework to our needs, which still doesn't work. Unfortunately my company still believes in cross compiler frameworks, so I'm basically stuck with a framework that will never meet the requirements of our application. Pity! – AlBirdie Jan 28 '13 at 10:49
  • @Al_Birdy You do realize that there's going to be even more "fiddling" around developing an HTML/CSS/DOM based 'application' which has to work on multiple competing desktop browsers and an absurd (and growing) number of mobile devices? Apache Flex (see the website) is about writing ONE codebase and deploying to any platform. – Manius Aug 16 '13 at 17:57
  • @Crusader, You do realize that I've written "15 months of developing with Flex", don't you? I'm well aware of the "write once, deploy everywhere" model Apache Flex promotes (though this will never be the case for any cross platform tool, you always have to patch it to make it work on different platforms, even if it is only Android-iOS). Also, where did I mention HTML in my posts? I was talking native, which, in my universe isn't HTML. – AlBirdie Aug 20 '13 at 11:48
  • You're right, I did miss "native" and made the assumption you were advocating more of the HTML5 kool aid that people are seemingly addicted to on mobile. I can somewhat agree regarding going native, but that doesn't mean the single codebase for multi-platforms is not a viable strategy--it's debatable, and as usual, it depends. If performance really is a major problem with what I call "software platform virtualization" (Flash, AIR, JVM etc) on mobile, it'll change with time. (Not saying it certainly is though, see Flex/AIR experience cited by Flextras/Reboog711 above.) – Manius Oct 15 '13 at 13:42
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    update, "it died" RIP FLEX – SuperUberDuper Nov 19 '18 at 09:18
  • @SuperUberDuper There are still a few niche projects out there that use Flex and AIR to create mobile or desktop applications. Most of the Apache Flex dev efforts have moved over to the "Flex2JS" project, Apache Royale. – JeffryHouser Nov 19 '18 at 13:41
  • ok thx for that, how much Flex2JS is in use out there ? – SuperUberDuper Nov 21 '18 at 12:20
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    @SuperUberDuper I do not know as I do not watch the project closely. I'm sure you'll find out more info at https://royale.apache.org/ – JeffryHouser Nov 21 '18 at 12:38
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This guy(Harbs) has given a quick and good recap of flex and its future. http://printui.com/blog/2013/01/flex-flash/

aadidasu
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  • Exactly many of the same things I've been saying for awhile now, ever since Adobe "dropped" Flex. Some might say "liberated" Flex... – Manius Aug 16 '13 at 17:45
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Is Adobe Flex going to end up dead - Short and concise answer - NO. It would take up a united front in implementing a web standard that does not require any plugin (Flash, SL, Java) for rich content to be implemented, which is very unlikely.

Can you recommend a web+mobile app replacement - Look at the following:

Sencha

KendoUI

jQueryUI

Sencha is also hosting a webinar which focuses on moving from Flex to HTML5 and Sencha http://www.sencha.com/company/events/webinar-moving-from-flex-to-html5-and-sencha/

Angelo
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Flex will never be totally dead since HTM-Hell 5 will NEVER be able to access the user's desktop in a stand-alone application like AIR. So there - I'm in the same boat - one other thing (pardon my yelling) MARK-UP LANGUAGES (XML INCLUDED) HAVE NO PLACE IN SOFTWARE DESIGN AND WERE INVENTED (SGML) FOR LINOTYPE OPERATORS SO THEY WOULDN'T HAVE TO BECOME PROGRAMMERS.

Unfortunately now programmers have had to regress to working like Linotype operators, hehe.

My 2c

daKatzz
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    -1 from me for yelling and for thinking markup languages have no place in software design. They have many uses, including sharing data between systems--which is a common use of XML--and even Flex's own MXML is great for defining the UI. – JeffryHouser Jan 22 '13 at 19:49
  • @Reboog711 Don't be so hard, I doubt he meant MXML and markup-based *layout*. I do agree with this sentiment with respect to other types of XML-like "programming structures", such as Spring application contexts and maybe the old Hibernate xml mapping files. (Not worth introducing such a potential for runtime errors while simultaneously increasing verbosity..) Actually Spring xml files are the poster child for this "write XML over writing code" mentality. For UI definition, yeah, XML structures are good due to the nature of UI components/containers. GWT Java-only UIs are impossible to follow. – Manius Oct 15 '13 at 13:56