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June 29, 2006
Flex 2 Learning Materials
One of the things that I focused on for the last 5 months of the Flex 2 release was the different learning materials that we wanted to get out. We decided to operate under the "more is better" principle, so I'd like to mention a few of the things that we did.
1) Introduced the Quick Starts: The Quick Starts are a series of short articles that serve as introductions to basic features and tasks that you will want to accomplish as you get going with Flex. Aral Balkan has done most of the writing. Each article points into the standard docs for more information.
2) Added to the ASDoc examples and made them consistent with the Component Explorer. There is no difference in the examples between these two resources, the explorer is now essentially a different way of indexing into them. All those other examples that used to be in the explorer? Well I'm expecting them to go into number 3...
3) Introduced the cookbook. We're still working out the final name and don't have a good codename, but that shouldn't stop you from being excited about this great resource we're building. You can read all about it in Craig's article, and make sure to let us know if you're interested in joining the seed program to help contribute initial content, provide feedback on the UI, etc. We're going to try to keep releasing more information on this project so that everyone knows what's coming, but it is unfortunately still a little ways off from being ready. Frankly this is the one that most excites me. But I'm still pretty happy with number 4...
4) New samples! You can see the current SDK samples here but it will be another week or two before I have the FDS samples hosted publicly (hardware took longer to arrive than expected). Each sample is trying to highlight different things in the framework and describes what it's doing in the associated README. Please take a look and give us feedback as to what other samples you might wish to see. I often hear "more samples with source" but if there's techniques you feel we should be demonstrating, please let us know.
Of course on top of this the Flex IMD team has done a tremendous job working on the documentation, we've gotten a lot of positive feedback on it but can always use more (good and bad). And I'm pretty excited to see the number of Flex books planned, I will happily plug your book if you send me a copy :-)
The Flex team will continue to provide samples and other learning materials, but what excites me most is the level of enthusiasm I see in the community towards helping each other. It's great to have this spirit and I really look forward to seeing what everyone will be coming up with.
Make sure to let us know the things we could improve to make your learning experiences even better!
Posted by mchotin at 10:33 PM | Comments (22) | TrackBack
Christophe's blog has moved
Make sure you update everything based on http://coenraets.org/ (instead of com).
Posted by mchotin at 09:23 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Intel-based Mac Player 9 Beta
Get your Mactel beta player here.
I'll try to post an update on our FlexBuilder 2 Mac plans on the flexteam blog in the next few days.
Posted by mchotin at 04:17 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
June 28, 2006
Thanks to the Adobe Web Team(s)!
The Adobe web site is huge. I'm not sure I fully understood its vastness until last night when I watched as 20 people were online from 9pm through 3am as they worked to make the Flex 2 launch happen. Press releases had to be posted, the store needed to be updated, new product pages launched, a whole new Developer Center, and on and on. I won't lie and say that it was smooth as butter; a nasty little process got in the way and kept undoing the changes they pushed out. But they perservered and we're now live and flushing out the remaining little kinks.
Thanks to you, the Flex community, for your patience with the site. But bigger thanks to the web team(s) for helping our little product see the light of day!
Posted by mchotin at 02:15 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
New Blog from NJ
NJ has been a big contributor to Flex, especially on Flex Builder (you can thank him for the nifty View Source implementation). Check out his new blog!
Posted by mchotin at 10:10 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 27, 2006
Go!
Thank you for all of the testing and feedback and love you've given us over the last 8+ months (since we released the alpha). We're very pleased that Flex 2 is now available. Check out flex.org as one entry point into lots of our resources including the downloads.
One thing you'll notice is the new Flex Team Blog. The first post is by me but we're hoping that it will get contributions from many of our team members as we really work to keep the conversation going with the community on where we are and where we need to go.
Posted by mchotin at 09:52 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 24, 2006
Did you know Roger's blogging?
He's been posting some stuff for the last few days on modular applications but nothing seems to be picking it up. Spread the word!
Posted by mchotin at 06:43 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Real-World Flex Seminar
Lots of folks have already posted about this but I'll be late to the party and post anyway. Sys-Con is putting together a Real-World Flex Seminar on August 14th in New York. More info found here. I'm really excited about the level of interest we're seeing in Flex and that events are starting to form to support it.
I've been working on the MAX planning for the track that will include most of the Flex talks and I think it's going to be awesome. More info on that when I can share (so don't ask now).
More announcements coming soon ;-)
Posted by mchotin at 04:56 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 15, 2006
Australian Flex Derby!
We've finally got an official Derby running outside North America, woohoo!
Details here.
Mildly insulting fake accents not required.
Posted by mchotin at 11:03 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 07, 2006
The Risks of Developing in Flash Authoring vs. Flex Builder (humor)
As shown in this alarming demonstration developers using Flash Authoring run the risk of their creations using the tools against them. You are less likely to have this risk in Flex Builder.
Flex Builder, the safe development choice. Coming soon...
Note: please watch the movie before thinking that this post is actually a vote for Flex Builder vs. Flash Authoring; it is not. I want you to buy both :-)
Posted by mchotin at 08:56 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack