I wrote an article titled "Why do Chinese companies dare not use flex as a product platform and main development language", with a point of view: Name confusion, the names of flash, flex builder, flex SDK, flash IDE (cs4) and other products are very vague, which is not conducive to beginners to grasp and use. To give a simple example, I told other people that I am a Flex Developer? When I am using ActionScript developers, anyone who doesn't know me will ask me, are you using flash? (-.-) = 3
Okay, the next generation of flex builder, namely flex Builder 4.0 (IDE rather than SDK), was published in Adobe this Saturday (May 16 ), change the name to flash builder. For details, refer to this article. We know that flex builder → flash builder, But what remains unchanged is the name of the Flex SDK, which is still called the flex SDK. Compared with Adobe, this is only a technical correction. Looking at Adobe products from a higher level, it is not difficult to find the following information.
Adobe CS (4) kit: Includes Photoshop, Dreamweaver, fireworks, flash IDE and other commonly used design tools. These tools are basically designed for designers and can be called design tools.
Flex SDK, mxml, actionscript 3.0, and air: all these products are open to developers and can be called programming languages and frameworks.
Blazeds, LCDs, and FMS: these products are server-oriented products, which can be called server-side products.
Okay. Let's take a look at the following example:
As you can see, Adobe now has design tools, programming languages, frameworks, and Server products, but it seems that there are fewer product connections between them, in particular, the use of tool classes has less contact with the server and framework users. Therefore, Adobe proposed the concept of Flash catalyst, which is a tool for Interaction designers. Adobe's idea: 1. Let flash catalyst read the design resources of design tools such as Photoshop and fireworks, and then complete the interaction part. 2. The flash catalyst can be exported as the content that can be understood and parsed by flash Builder 4. 3. developers use flash Builder 4 and other tools to complete the main logical functions. 4. Adobe Server products, such as blazeds, LCDs, and FMS, can also be installed. Therefore, flash catalyst not only works in interactive design, but also forms a system between these three Adobe products and isolated products. See: it is easy to see that flash catalyst makes Adobe products more like a whole. In fact, Adobe has defined all this as a platform-level product: Flash Platform. Let's look back at the true meaning of Flash builder. This renaming event can make the Flash Platform product more clear. For example, when we mention the csseries, we will immediately think of design tools such as PhotoShop. When we mention flash catalyst, we will think of interaction tools. When it comes to blazeds, LCDs, and FMS, you will think of server products. What will happen before I change my name? When it comes to flex, does it represent the SDK or IDE? Because both the SDK and IDE are called Flex XXXX, and even more inexplicable is that the IDE of air is also called Flex XXXX, which is really a big one. Both the flex SDK (framework), xmml, actionscript 3.0, and air are essentially SWF, that is, Flash. Therefore, if we change the name of flex builder to flash builder, the product of this series will be clearer. For example, when Flex is mentioned, it refers to the flex SDK (framework), mxml, and ActionScript 3.0, it refers to the programming language, air, and air framwork. When it comes to flash builder, you will immediately know that it is an IDE, that is, you can write, compile, run, mxml, and event 3.0. It is also an IDE for compiling flex and air. One benefit of renaming is: 1. When someone asks me, I can say that I am a Flash Developer, then these people will know that I will use flex, air, mxml, and ActionScript 3.0. 2. If you use Flash CS (4), you can call it a flash designer. 3. If you are a friend of Flash catalyst, you can call it a product interaction person. Look, this is clear :) Are you right? Last figure (Flash Platform ):
Finally, let's make another guess: The Flash Platform strategy gradually emerges, which is closely related to Microsoft's WPF and Silverlight strategy. :)
For details, see:Http://www.k-zone.cn/zblog/post/flash-buidler-flash-catalyst-flash-platform.html
