为什么选择Flex而不选择Ajax－Newbie asks why Flex

一位名叫mabrams_us 的网友在flexcoders的mailinglist中征求大家对使用flex的意见（why one should invest in learning Flex as a career move opposed to focusing on other technologies.）
于是有两位网友作了精彩回答，我认为比较经典，现在摘出来给大家分享。
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boy_trike :
let me give you some of the reasons why I have decided to embrace FLEX as our featured
development tool (notice I did not say RIA tool, but development tool.) I have been
building custom data-centric solutions for about a zillion years (ok, over 30 anyway) and
always am on the lookout for a new and better tool. My friends call me "database of the
month club" since I keep trying, switching, switching back from all of the latest and
greatest solutions. (Tried AJAX, but did not find the right toolset yet.). The reasons are:

FLEX FEATURES
Flex's main advantage is the agility it adds to building a rich user interface with database
connectivity.

Performance is very good

Can use external style sheets
o Allows a graphic artist to work on the UI
o Easy customization

Any object can move, be resized, skinned, wiped
o Better use of screen real-estate
o Can eliminate overlapping windows
o Users attention can be focused / directed

Screen Independent - Run Anywhere
o PC
o Web
o Phone???

Open / extensible
o Expect library of components to be released
o Can connect to other server objects
o Can connect to Web services
o Eclipse IDE is open and expandable

Adobe / Macromedia
o Support / Training
o Inexpensive Toolkit
o Free Runtime

Good luck with whatever you decide to embrace, but DO embrace it. (as someone once
asked me, how can a computer programmer drive a Porsche? I said its easy, just be the
best at something!

Bruce
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Grant Davies :
I've done user interfaces in C, C++, C#, Pascal, Java (its its 20 million gui frameworks), .NET, VB etc.. etc..

I started programming GUI's in flash about 3 or 4 years ago, and still doing my backend development in java, .net or php. Flash gives me the user experience I'm after, the rich, cool looking user interface that allows me to create on line applications, instead of websites that are inferior to desktop apps when built in html.

AJAX is lipstick on the pig, its still ugly as hell under the covers, hard to debug and doesn't run consistently across browsers. I personally dislike it with a vengeance, updating div tags on the fly is once of the lamest solutions to a rich UI I've ever seen.

Flex is flash with a strong architecture, a stronger language (as3), a traditional programming environment (similar to jsp or asp.net development) and a very rich suite of controls, its aimed at programmers and its easier to learn than the flash IDE since is similar to other language development environments.

for graphics heavy apps I'll probably still use flash, for online data centric applications I'll use flex, and use flash for the fancier components that need fancy graphics or effects. I personally can't wait for the flex component explosion that happened to VB and will happen to flex..

Flex will reduce my flash development cycle for real applications by about 30% since I won't have to keep building all my own components.

Cheers,
Grant

按需去用即可

如果硬要AJAX和FLEX比的话, 不用说AJAX败得一踏湖涂:
1. 代码难读(为了兼容往往写一些不知道是什么鬼东西, 而且还兼容不到一些);
2. 容易被禁止(现在动不动游览器就禁止, 因为鬼知道它会不会是病毒呀);
3. 不同游览器的效果可能会不一样(当然这不怪它, 这是游览器的问题);
4. 最后一点就是不跨游览器(太垃圾了, 现在好久没有上那些只支持IE的网站了, 见到转身就跑).

FLEX就不一样了: 有好的调试工具, 跨平台性往往不用我们去想, ADOBE这些专业的公司会去搞定的了. 主流的游览器都支持(比AJAX的支持率要高多了).

有人会说, FLEX的内容不可搜索? 这个缺点好严重. 多想想, 如果AJAX用二制进数据通信的话, 一样是没有可搜索性, 用XML的话, 这是因为XML的特性,而不是AJAX.

1.代码很难读吗？使用dwr,buffalo,prototype等框架，怎么会很难读。兼容性也没那么严重，主流浏览器都考虑到了
2.禁止javascript脚本不多见吧？
3.效果？ 你是说什么效果？页面显示效果跟ajax有什么关系？
4.完全不是理由的理由

对于楼上的回答. 我只想问, 你测试过多少种浏览器? 有没有在不同的平台下测试各种浏览器(例如:在linux下测试Firefox, MAC OS下测试IE, FIREFOX, SAFARI等).

禁止? 只要你打了XP SP2的补丁, IE就会禁止一些JS, 更重要的是FIREFOX下的NO SCRIPT插件(见JS就杀, 让用户决定是否起用).

喔, 忘记了一个叫什么熬游游览器(MYIE), 好象有一些人特别喜欢用, 不解.

效果方面, 我不是说了, 大部分是游览器问题吗? 不过也有不是浏览器的问题(例如做一个可以输入的下拉框).

4个问题, 真是不想说了.

忘记说了一个关于安全性了. 算了. 懒得说了.

喔. 我喜欢的是纯HTML + CSS, 好优雅喔(就算不支持CSS, 也不会什么都不显示, 就算TMD不支持HTML, 还是知道原来程序是有反应的(有返回结果)).

IE会禁止某些JS，难道用户就不会禁止flash吗？firefox可以安装no script，难道用户不能禁止安装Flash插件吗？这样的假设很没意义。测试各种浏览器？说句不厚道的，你真的有这么认真考虑过支持所有的浏览器吗？

有的.很认真考虑过浏览器们的. 可能你没有. 最近项目都是在FLEX上的了.

首先，就像另一位哥们说的，我支持常用浏览器就够了（四五种顶多了）。你硬要用ie3之流来让我们兼容的话，flex难道能兼容吗？
另一点，如果用户选择禁用js也不要紧，<noscript>标签就是用来做这个的（可参考gmail）。与此同时，我想说的是，我的浏览器就总是禁用flash。
最后，你的所谓四个问题根本就是两个嘛，用兼容性反复说事没什么意思：flex有adobe解决兼容性，ajax同样可以用各种包来对开发人员隔离这个问题。
flex是一种很不错的技术，但你这种捧一踩一的态度很恶心。

"恶心"这两个字有点过头了，搞技术的都比较偏执，对某项技术钟情也是正常。如果ajax开发者能话时间看看flex或者openlaszlo的话，也许会有令一种见解。

从实际出发, 为什么要用AJAX?

这样就能更好作出选择(不要告诉我为了更好的体验).

顺便问一下. 支持四五主流浏览器, 我想问一下, 哪几种? 你知道FIREFOX在不平同的平台下表现会有不一样的地方吗? 你知道IE在不同的平台会有不一样的地方吗? 不要老拿WINDOWS下的IE和FIREFOX来说啦.