On the Release of Flex Builder

On August 23, 2004, Macromedia released a new product called Macromedia Flex Builder. Flex Builder is the Macromedia IDE for developing Flex applications. I want to take a few minutes to explain our goals with this product and how we expect people to use it.

Flex Builder is built solely for Flex users. With Flex Builder, Flex application developers design, code, test, and deploy their Flex applications. It’s built to engage a broad range of users—from technical designers to hard core coders—in developing Flex applications. With Flex Builder, user interface developers and even technical designers lay out Flex application interfaces and connect them to back-end data sources. For the more hard core coders, Flex Builder offers a full ActionScript coding environment and integrated ActionScript debugging—there’s something for everyone on the Flex team.

You may hear that Flex Builder is built on Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004 and wonder whether this is new release of Dreamweaver or an early view of where Dreamweaver is heading. It’s true that we built Flex Builder on top of Dreamweaver MX 2004, but we didn’t change any part of the existing Dreamweaver MX 2004 feature set. It’s the exact same Dreamweaver MX 2004 you can buy from the Macromedia website today. We simply took that platform and added Flex application development features. So, if you aren’t developing Flex applications, continue with Dreamweaver and don’t let Flex Builder distract you.

If you are a Flex application developer, should you drop your current tool and use Flex Builder? Not so fast. Definitely take a look at Flex Builder. It comes bundled with trial and full versions of Flex, so everyone can try it. But if you find you are happier and more productive using your current toolset for Flex development, by all means, use the tools that make you productive. As of release, Flex Builder is the only tool that has a visual Design view that you can use to drag and drop containers and components to assemble a Flex application interface. Add code hinting and integrated debugging, and you have a tool that some will love use for everything. And some people will always be more productive with their current tools. Be productive and choose the tools that make you most successful.

We just released Flex Builder, and already we have a lot of plans for changes. We have a big challenge in front of us to keep up with the performance requirements of Flex users. We’ll focus on producing better performance to give you faster start up, Design view rendering, and debugging. We’ve heard that a fast tool is key to your productivity and we’re already working on strategies to deliver that to you in the future.

We’ve said it many times before, so please don’t ignore it: We look forward to experiencing the great things you make using Flex—your applications define the state of the art. It's very exciting for us to see the best new stuff you create and we’ll help you share good ideas with each other.

Find out how to get Flex Builder.

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