Learning From Others

原文链接：http://www.insideria.com/2008/05/learning-from-others.html

The best way to learn Flex is to get in there, and to start working with it. However, there are things you might not pick up on on your own. One of the best ways to get to know the inner workings of the Flex framework, and to learn how others do it. Now, where can you look to see how others have done things? Here are a few ideas...

Open Source Software

First and foremost, the Flex SDK is open source. The SDK source is distributed with Flex Builder, and is also available on http://opensource.adobe.com/. There are a lot of things you can learn by reviewing the framework source code. Everything from component life cycle, event usage, to customized rendering and the display list. Rather than blindly accepting that the components work, you can dive into the component framework and learn HOW it works. Review the framework!

There are also some other great open source projects out there to help expand your knowledge and capabilities with the framework.

CoreLib - The AS3 corelib project is a set of ActionScript classes that are very useful. This is AS3, not just Flex, but completely usable within Flex applications. This includes MD5 hashing, RSS/ATOM parsers, JSON parsers, cryptography libraries, among others...
http://code.google.com/p/as3corelib/

FlexLib - "The FlexLib project is a community effort to create open source user interface components for Adobe Flex 2 and 3." (from the FlexLib Wiki) There are lots of useful components in here.
http://code.google.com/p/flexlib/

Degrafa - The focus behind the Declarative Graphics Framework (Degrafa) is to bring the graphics classes up a level to provide a common ground between developer and designer within Flex, and enable the graphics classes to become first class citizens within the Flex framework. (from Degrafa website)

Degrafa is a great way to learn and incorporate programmatic drawing within Flex applications. There's also a great intro to Degrafa available at http://www.insideria.com/2008/05/an-introduction-to-degrafa-1.html
http://www.degrafa.com/

Papervision, Away3d, etc...
There are some great 3d open source frameworks worth checking out.
http://blog.papervision3d.org/
http://away3d.com/

There's a great intro to papervision3d introductory article available at: http://www.insideria.com/2008/02/papervision3d-part-1-foundatio.html

Blogs...
Not quite open source, but you can learn a lot from them. Read blogs to learn from others, and to keep up with the pulse of the industry. I most commonly read Adobe Feeds (formerly MXMA), but there are others too.

Newsgroups
Flexcoders is a great place place on the web to find answers to your Flex questions. Go there, read other people's posts, learn from them, answer questions if you know the answer, and ask questions if you have them.

User Groups
User groups are a great way to interact with other developers, learn from experts, and discuss technology. Find a user group near you at: http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/usergroups/

If you have some other resources, please share them!

 

Useful Comments:

a directory of opensource flex components http://flexbox.mrinalwadhwa.com