Java Developers, Why aren’t you using Flex?
Filed Under (Flex, InfoQ.com, Java, RIA, Technology) by jonr on December-13-2007

There are basically no more barriers to entry with Adobe’s announcement today that much of Flex Data Services is being open sourced. In addition, they recently lowered the price of the Flex Builder IDE to $249. What reasons are left for Java developers to keep using crappy server side Java frameworks over Flex? Really. Please share.

Here are some links on today’s announcement:

http://coenraets.org/blog/2007/12/blazeds-open-sourcing-remoting-and-messaging/

http://www.jamesward.org/wordpress/2007/12/12/blazebench-why-you-want-amf-and-blazeds/

Also, check out my latest InfoQ.com post, where I talked with Adobe’s James Ward on some of the Misconceptions around Flex:

http://www.infoq.com/news/2007/12/top-10-flex-misconceptions

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(4) Comments    Read More

Comments:
Per Olesen on December 14th, 2007 at 5:54 am #

I am not quite sure why not more Java developers are taking the step to use flex. I did myself, and I am liking it. There are some quirks though.

1. Yes, flex is open source. But flash is not. Reporting a bug in flex jira is nice. But often, the bug is flash runtime related, and then it enters closed adobe land. That is not nice.

We should really keep in mind here, that is is only the flex framework, that is open source. And flex is based on a lot of flash code, which is damned closed.

2. Testability. The Java crowd is insane about being able to test stuff. Flash apps are hard to blackbox test, if you don’t want to pay for something with automation package in it.

But again, it is lovely, for a lot of stuff (but far from all).

BTW: Writing “..using crappy server side Java frameworks..”, was that just to start a flame war or what? There are certainly some crappy ones between, but most of the mainstream ones are pretty good, .. for what they were designed for. Did you have something special in mind here or what?

jonr on December 18th, 2007 at 12:08 am #

I think that Java developers are starting to adopt Flex because of the quality user interface that one can easily build with it.

On the open source question, checkout James Ward’s post ‘How I Overcame My Fear of Flash’ – http://www.jamesward.org/wordpress/2007/02/21/how-i-overcame-my-fear-of-flash/. He has some interesting points on this. I do share some reservations about this, but I also find the desire in the Java community for every last piece of infrastructure to open source a bit silly.

I personally find truly testing user interfaces a challenge, regardless of the technology. At least in any automated way. Certainly, AJAX has the similar challenges.

You are right on the flame war comment – sorry about that. I was feeling a bit prickly that day. I have been doing a bit with JSF, and I am less than impressed with the component model. One of the things I am enjoying about Flex is that pretty much everything I need is in the Framework. I know that is bit sacrilegious as a Java developer.

Per Olesen on December 27th, 2007 at 6:31 am #

Okay. Actually, I think we agree a lot. And on JSF, you are quite right :-)

zaffman on January 8th, 2008 at 8:09 am #

Java developers are adopting flex. It’s easier to work with than virtually any other presentation layer. I do feel that Java developers are more prone to be linked to larger corporate shops, and as such, are likely to incorporate new(semi-new) technology into their stack. All I know is that flex give me the ability to write UI’s very easily.

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