I am planning to build a giant management system in Flex 4.0, and I need some advice

Question

I am planning to build a giant management system in Flex 4.0, and I just wanted to know what are some pros and cons of using 4.0 (or 4.2) over 3.5? Lighter components? Faster pipelines? What are some things I can look forward to when using Flex 4.0?

Answer 1

The biggest change when using Flex 4 (and above) is the introduction of the Spark Architecture. Spark offers a brand new component set which makes it easier to design and skin components. The spark architecture also offers integration with other Adobe tools such as Flash Catalyst.

Adobe has clearly stated that Spark is the future of Flex Development. The MX architecture is not supported in mobile optimized components, for example.

If I were to start a new project today, I would try to focus it on the Flex 4 / Spark architecture as much as possible. If any of the Spark components fail you, you can still use the MX Components in the Flex 4 project.

Although it hasn't happened yet, I can forsee a future where the MX component set becomes deprecated.

Answer 2

With Adobe always go with the latest and greatest because legacy products won't be support for long. As others have mentioned the new Spark Components are much better and super helpful when coding UI. Sliders and other UI components are a breeze, but there is nothing lightweight about AIR or Flex.

I see no cons of Using Flex 4, but just like the Adobe Flash Player the newer the better. There are constant security fixes and over all improvements. Not to mention Adobe is fixing and optimizing the Flash Player which will encourage any users to upgrade to the latest and greatest.

The only reason why I would pic one version of Flex over another is if you want to use some 3rd party plug-in that is only supported by another version. Otherwise, use the newest version.