为什么选择Flex而不选择Ajax－Newbie asks why Flex

一位名叫mabrams_us 的网友在flexcoders的mailinglist中征求大家对使用flex的意见（why one should invest in learning Flex as a career move opposed to focusing on other technologies.）
于是有两位网友作了精彩回答，我认为比较经典，现在摘出来给大家分享。
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boy_trike :
let me give you some of the reasons why I have decided to embrace FLEX as our featured
development tool (notice I did not say RIA tool, but development tool.) I have been
building custom data-centric solutions for about a zillion years (ok, over 30 anyway) and
always am on the lookout for a new and better tool. My friends call me "database of the
month club" since I keep trying, switching, switching back from all of the latest and
greatest solutions. (Tried AJAX, but did not find the right toolset yet.). The reasons are:

FLEX FEATURES
Flex's main advantage is the agility it adds to building a rich user interface with database
connectivity.

Performance is very good

Can use external style sheets
o Allows a graphic artist to work on the UI
o Easy customization

Any object can move, be resized, skinned, wiped
o Better use of screen real-estate
o Can eliminate overlapping windows
o Users attention can be focused / directed

Screen Independent - Run Anywhere
o PC
o Web
o Phone???

Open / extensible
o Expect library of components to be released
o Can connect to other server objects
o Can connect to Web services
o Eclipse IDE is open and expandable

Adobe / Macromedia
o Support / Training
o Inexpensive Toolkit
o Free Runtime

Good luck with whatever you decide to embrace, but DO embrace it. (as someone once
asked me, how can a computer programmer drive a Porsche? I said its easy, just be the
best at something!

Bruce
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Grant Davies :
I've done user interfaces in C, C++, C#, Pascal, Java (its its 20 million gui frameworks), .NET, VB etc.. etc..

I started programming GUI's in flash about 3 or 4 years ago, and still doing my backend development in java, .net or php. Flash gives me the user experience I'm after, the rich, cool looking user interface that allows me to create on line applications, instead of websites that are inferior to desktop apps when built in html.

AJAX is lipstick on the pig, its still ugly as hell under the covers, hard to debug and doesn't run consistently across browsers. I personally dislike it with a vengeance, updating div tags on the fly is once of the lamest solutions to a rich UI I've ever seen.

Flex is flash with a strong architecture, a stronger language (as3), a traditional programming environment (similar to jsp or asp.net development) and a very rich suite of controls, its aimed at programmers and its easier to learn than the flash IDE since is similar to other language development environments.

for graphics heavy apps I'll probably still use flash, for online data centric applications I'll use flex, and use flash for the fancier components that need fancy graphics or effects. I personally can't wait for the flex component explosion that happened to VB and will happen to flex..

Flex will reduce my flash development cycle for real applications by about 30% since I won't have to keep building all my own components.

Cheers,
Grant