Free Flex/AJAX Demo Application from Adobe
Adobe's Mike Potter has posted a VERY cool example of how to use Flex & Ajax together to build Google Finance-like site.
With all of the crap flying around about whether Flex is better than Ajax for RIA, its great to see Adobe take the lead and show a great example of integration between these two very important technologies.
Check it out here:
Ajax sucks. Actually it doesn't technically "suck" - it works fine for very small and specialized usages. (NOT true Rich Internet Applications - LOL have fun with that project!) But it's already outdated if you have ANY desire to see TRUE Rich Internet Applications out there.
Use Adobe Flex, people! My God, why do we always have to choose the hard way to do things in IT? Flex is frikkin free ffs. Now Blaze data services (and Granite data services) are free. (Useful for object remoting with Java servers! Let's see Ahax, er Ajax do that as well as Flex does!) Oh yeah, by the way, your Flex applications can easily be made into STAND ALONE non-browser (internet enabled) applications using Adobe Air if you design it with that in mind. Let's see your Ajax app do that.
If you use Flex Builder too, you get WYSIWYG design - and NO, it doesn't make you a "fake" developer if you use this design tool - just an efficient/smart one! Unless you believe that using hacks, and making technologies do things that they were never meant to do makes you a real developer. (= Ajax - not to mention HTML, heh.)
The Flex Builder GUI designer writes code for you and simply saves you time. What's your Ajax IDE going to get you? Oh wait, that's right - there's no such thing! (Have fun debugging that jsp crap!)
And is Ahax really the best you ever want to see on the internet? Give me a break. Gmail - is that the best it can do? lol. All hype.
Not only all this, but with Flex it's actually FUN to develop software again! Software development hasn't been this fun in a long, long time.
Actually, you know what? People should keep using Ajax. I'll just keep using Flex myself, create much higher quality products, and have way more fun in the process! Have fun with those JavaScript hacks, hope that debugging process gets easier for you guys! (I mean, since Flex Builder DOES have full built in debugger support, after all.)
Ajax is the poor man's Flex/Flex Builder. Ah well.