Why Learning Flex is Worth Your While
Last week I talked about how learning to write ASP.NET apps in Visual Studio had paid dividends when I needed to write a Windows app.
Well, the same (and more) is true of learning to create Flex apps in Flash Builder. When I started with Flex (3+ years ago) I was merely interested in being able to quickly create rich web experiences apps for my customers.
Three years on and I'm so glad it's something I invested the time in. Being a competent Flex developer means I am now in the enviable position of being able to create mobile applications for iOS, Android and BlackBerry playbooks. All from the same source code!
Not just mobile apps! Those same Flex skills mean I can make rich desktop apps that are truly cross platform (Windows, Linux and Mac OS). These desktop apps can have access to a set of native OS abilities like reading and writing files to disk or drag-drop file management etc. When I have a requirement that can't be met by a web app I have AIR to fall back on.
Flex is amazing. Not so much so that I'd condone it's use for anything and everything of course. As with all problems there's always a best-fit solution and Flex isn't always it.
Diversification is the spice of a developer's life. If you've got time to kill and want to invest it wisely, why not learn Flex?
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amen to that!!
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The real question I would pose is why do you need flex to do as you state?
With javascript/html/css you can write desktop apps with Air (with all the same D&D, file reading/writing, etc), web apps with whatever backend you choose, native mobile apps across iOS, Andriod, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Palm OS & Symbian using a project like Phonegap (All from the same source code as well)
I think if you look at web technologies in general they are much more ubiquitous. Flash, imo is on it's way out (which is long overdue) as the major reasons for using it have been replaced by native browser functionality provided in HTML5 & CSS3.
Lately, I've been dealing with several very large companies who have used flex to develop various applications that have decided to discontinue using it for future apps or intend to completely rewrite their flex apps using standard web technologies. Though, to be fair most of the time if they have me involved they're starting to deal with Sencha Touch & Ext JS which are very much competing products.
While I agree that diversification is most definitely important, I personally will argue all day that there are few circumstances where flex is the best solution.
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