Last time I wrote, I talked about the reasons why developing Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) with Adobe Flex is a good idea. Today I want to introduce a method that works very well for developing Flash and Flex applications and the best part is that it allows developers to harness Flash’s power for free!

One of the most luring factors regarding Flash and Flex technology is that Adobe has made the framework completely open-source and has provided developers worldwide with a robust and mature Software Development Kit (SDK) called, unsurprisingly, the Flex SDK. The current stable version as of December 28, 2009 is Flex SDK 3.4 but by early 2010 Flex 4 will be released.

Adobe, being a for-profit company, obviously has wonderful products specially designed to make the process of developing Flash and Flex applications as easy and efficient as possible for developers and animators; Flash Professional CS4 and Flex Builder 3, although the name of the latter will be changed to Flash Builder 4 when Flex SDK 4 is released, are examples of such applications. For some individuals, paying for Adobe’s proprietary software is well worth it because they cater almost-perfectly to the specific needs of Flash and Flex developers. Most of them argue that developing in Flash CS4 or even Flex Builder 3 is a lot easier than developing with the open-source alternatives because there is no need to set-up the Adobe Flex SDK, set up the Adobe compiler, the process is streamlined, and debugging is a lot easier. In some respects, I agree with some of their points but once you understand how to set-up the SDK, obtain a powerful, lightweight, open-source IDE specifically designed for Flash developers, and get the same results that one would get with Flex Builder 3 or Flash CS4 minus the cost of purchasing them, there is no little chance anybody would want it another way – ok maybe if you are an animator buying Flash CS4 does makes sense because it does makes it easier to animate, but for developers there are alternatives to Flex Builder 3.

Sometimes I am baffled by the available technology at our finger tips. In today’s fast-paced world it seems as if everything keeps changing and evolving at an exponential rate. This phenomenon is quite noticeable in the computer-world as one can argue that technology is one of the main contributors for this overall rapid change. Computers become faster and more reliable as time progresses and with them come better and more efficient ways to develop the software that empower them, this is the reason why it would be almost impossible for a single human being to become proficient, let alone consummated, in every software-development platform there is.

I became aware of this fact early on when I was researching on how to learn to program computers. The choices of programming languages were almost endless and the paths to learn each one of them only exacerbated my frustration until I realized that no matter what technology I chose to endeavor in I had to have fun using it because this would determine whether I stuck with it until I understood it well enough to be proficient or whether I would just become so incorrigibly frustrated that my excitement and love for technology, more specifically for computers, would fade away to the point of hatred; I knew I had to get it right the first time. I knew I loved video games and I also knew that the prospect of me making my own seemed so intriguing that that’s what I chose to learn. Interestingly, I had always liked a product from Macromedia, now Adobe, called Flash that allows artists to make their own animations and cartoons and publish them in a lightweight and portable format specially suited for the internet. This program has a built-in programming language (scripting language) that allows programmers and developers to create interactive media; the part that lured me the most was that most of the online games are created with this technology.