Understanding Flex and Flash Authoring
Many developers first learning about Flex 3 may still be unclear as to the relationship between Flex and Flash authoring, the traditional tool for creating content for Flash Player. First, you do not have to understand Flash authoring in order to work with Flex. In fact, you can get started with Flex without any prior knowledge of or experience in Flash authoring.
Flash authoring is a product that was developed in 1996 as a vector animation tool primarily aimed at creating animation content for the Web. In the many versions since that time, both Flash authoring and Flash Player (the deployment platform for Flash authoring content) have enabled greater and greater capabilities, and developers began to create RIAs with the tools. However, although Flash authoring is a fantastic tool for creating animations, it is not the ideal tool for creating applications. The metaphors that Flash authoring uses at its core (such as timelines) are simply not applicable to application development.
Flex 3 is a product aimed primarily at creating applications. The framework includes a rich set of layout and user interface components, and the technology uses metaphors such as states and transitions that are appropriate to application development.
Both Flex and Flash authoring allow you to create .swf content that runs in Flash Player. In theory, you can achieve the same things using both products. However, Flash is a tool that allows you to create timeline-based animations ...
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