Flex Roadmap is Extremely Disappointing

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02-23-2014 06:50 PM
KirkMower
New Contributor III
http://blogs.esri.com/esri/arcgis/2014/02/21/esris-roadmap-for-web-developers/

...and baffling considering that the best ArcGIS Server applications have been built with it. I am very angry about this, but I am only person. Everyone here should comment above.
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32 Replies
RobertScheitlin__GISP
MVP Emeritus
Kirk,

   You could get others to complain, but I for one have just been waiting for esri to make this inevitable announcement. The industry market focus as been shifting towards HTML5 for sometime now. It is like Windows 8 you can complain all you want but it will do no good. ESRI is not going to change their mind about this and they shouldn't as in the near future browser plugins will be history, and Flash player is a plugin that flex uses. Progress means change and you have to get use to it. This all has a lot of impact on me as I have been the forums MVP for several years now based on my support of Flex API and the Viewer not to mentions the 100,000s of lines of code I have written for all 25 of the Flex widgets I have made available to people out there and other flex projects internally in my organization. I am not looking forward to changing my programming language again but it is what it is.
AaronNash1
Occasional Contributor II
That is too bad, it seems a little premature to me. Adobe has been making big updates and bug fixes to Adobe Air and Flash Player. Not only that, Apache Flex is a top level Apache Software Product and is on a new release 4.12. In addition to the continued development and support of Flex, FlexJS is proof that a Flex Application can be cross-compiled into JS classes and run in a browser without the need for Flash/AIR runtimes. That's just my 2 cents
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KomanDiabate
New Contributor III
Here is my two cents.
It will be extremely hard for any flex programmer to go to javascript, just because Flex just works much much better. Going JS you have to learn javascript, Jquery, Dojo, javascript, css and the list go on...
I think ESRI is giving up to soon and  it's all politics. This doesn't make no sense.
Aaron has already mentioned FlexJS if you have not hear of this google it, Apache Flex is doing a lot of works in a short period of time.
Keep Flexing Guys.
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PaulHastings1
Occasional Contributor
perhaps we can complain that it should be open sourced instead of abandoned?
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raffia
by
New Contributor II
I say this and FB is about the only source that I know to create apps, this is inevitable. Apps created with FB run quite slow and memory intensive if you load any decent amount of dynamic data. Am not sure that JS will be better at this, am hopping it will be.
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PaulHastings1
Occasional Contributor
I say this and FB is about the only source that I know to create apps, this is inevitable. Apps created with FB run quite slow and memory intensive if you load any decent amount of dynamic data. Am not sure that JS will be better at this, am hopping it will be.


FB? you mean flash builder? while it might have its flaws while developing it has little to do w/the resources an app uses when deployed. and if you don't like FB, there are a few other dev platforms, intelliJ for instance, that are quite nice.
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raffia
by
New Contributor II
FB? you mean flash builder? while it might have its flaws while developing it has little to do w/the resources an app uses when deployed. and if you don't like FB, there are a few other dev platforms, intelliJ for instance, that are quite nice.


Yeah I meant Flash Builder. I should have said "ActionScript" is the only coding language I know. But this upcoming transition is inevitable.

About Javasctipt, I have a basic question, as I understand, all the code is executed on the client side, so that enables anyone to grab all the code?
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GISDev1
Occasional Contributor III


About Javasctipt, I have a basic question, as I understand, all the code is executed on the client side, so that enables anyone to grab all the code?


Yes, basically. There are a few exceptions, but yes basically.
The main downside to using Javascript is having to test with all the different browser configurations.
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DaveKirkley
New Contributor III
My two "Canadian" cents..lol :confused:

Reading Robert's post here has got me a little upset for sure, but what he says is true; change is inevitable, especially in the IT world. That's just stating the all too obvious.

I started GIS in 2001, and was introduced to Javascript, ArcXML  and ArcIMS.  Then, at my first working stint, I was working with Autodesk Map Guide; a platform that went Open source with limited success. 2005 brought me back to ArcIMS and ESRI's .NET/ArcGIServer leap around 2007 or so.  The switch to Flex was a great relief from those days. I loved the simplicity of the code and the entire look and feel of the viewers.
I'm very grateful for the many posts on this forum and great widgets shared by Mr. Sheitlin. Thanks again Robert! I must say though, you seem to be taking this gracefully, considering the huge effort you put into Flex.

The HTML 5 shift has been looming over the web world for a while now.  The Marine motto " ...Accept, Adapt, Overcome" comes to mind. That said, as with all changes, I tend to wait out the initial whirlwind with these things, let the dust settle, and make an informed decision.

Dave Kirkley
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