Resources for Learning Flex

We've got another installment on InsideRIA, this time it diverges from the usual content and is simply a list of helpful resources that I've run across on my journey into Flex. There's tons of info out there, but it's often difficult keep the helpful stuff organized. I recommend a maintaining a clear starting point from which you can navigate to whatever content you need at the time. As I continue to learn more about being a Flex developer, I'll surely run across more great resources and my list will need to be updated. To keep a handle on this, I've created a del.icio.us account for Learning Flex From Scratch. This way, everyone can compare the resources I've found to their own and possibly come across something useful.

Arrays in Flex

Not long ago, the sixth installment of the Learning Flex From Scratch series on InsideRIA went up, and its subject was arrays. I would have to say that this was the most challenging one so far, but it seems to have been a hit with our fans in Indonesia, Spain, and the Netherlands, as Google Analytics would have us believe. We've dedicated a good amount time to ActionScript 3.0 in the series, covering such areas as Loops, Conditionals, and general object-oriented programming concepts. Soon, we'll have a post on MXML up to round out our coverage of the languages used in Flex, and then we'll move on to discussions of the tools used in creating rich internet applications in Flex.

ActionScript - Conditionals and Loops

Our latest installment of Learning Flex From Scratch on InsideRIA tries to explain the nature of conditional statements and looping blocks of code in ActionScript 3.0. Once again, I turned to my trusty companions for information: Colin Moock's Essential ActionScript 3.0, the Adobe live docs, Wikipedia, and of course, Google Talk incessantly pinging my mentor-Adam Flater.

Given that I am learning Flex as I go, and that we are determined to put up a new post each week, it's really important that i have lots of quality information at my disposal at all times. Thankfully, I do. Adam's help is absolutely indispensable, and his patience with my newbie questions deserves special mention.

As far as those resources I've come across on my own, I would say Essential ActionScript 3.0 and the Adobe live docs have been most helpful, at least for these last few posts. One thing I recently found helpful is the ActionScript 3.0 language reference. This is handy for any developer I'm sure, but for someone trying to get a handle on the language it really makes sense of the many sometimes confusing language components. Also, Colin Moock's website has got some really great resources. He's got a lecture series about ActionScript, and his notes are available to check out. It's just an outline with no detail on the included topics, (for details, read Essential ActionScript 3.0) but it really can help to see what the important areas are when you're first learning the language.

That's all for now, I've got to go study up on collections and arrays!

public function learnActionScript (currentKnowledge : String)= "notMuch"

Our latest post on LFFS is called: LFFS-4-ActionScript 3.0, and it's all about writing a class in ActionScript 3.0. It's a little bit longer than the others, and it took a bit more time to complete, but I'm not sure if we could have made it any shorter. The class itself has a bunch of the stuff anyone learning the language needs to know. My hope is that my attempt at explaining the various parts of our example class comes through clearly. A challenge like learning an object-oriented language without any programming experience whatsoever lends itself to explanations of code that may not be the norm. I tried to reiterate points that I thought were important to my learning process, so hopefully those who are in the same situation as I am will be able to learn from our installment!

Cheeri-o

more flex on inside ria

Adam and I have updated the posts on insideRIA a couple of times so far. We've got one up that describes various parts of the Flex framework and covers some important definitions. We've also posted about object-oriented programming just recently. This one covers some general programming concepts as they relate to object orientation. Followers of the series may want to check out our new RIA-flexglossary.net. A beginning programmer will likely find this site useful as it is continually updated with terms as we roll along with the series. See you soon!

Off and Running

So this marks the beginning (official) of my journey into Adobe's Flex. I'm lucky enough to be mentored by the great Adam Flater, and as such feel confident that my progress will be swift. Be aware that I'm a total noob, if not a boob, and there's plenty of really basic stuff I've got to learn. So I'm off, and will post again when there's something to say. Lates.