Adobe Flex.. worth learning?

[oversteer]

As a Front End Developer (Javascript) I'm seeing a lot of Flex-based roles come up.

In my current perm role I could probably swing redeveloping an existing project into Flex and spend about 6 months learning it, probably enough time to get good at it.

I know very little about Flex right now, it's not as design-based as Flash is, I assume? Is it possible to get a good enough grasp of it in 6 months given I have significant knowledge of JS ?

[d000hg]

It is definitely worth learning, especially if "front end" or "UI/UX" developer are what you sell yourself as.

Flex is the same programming language as used in Flash (ActionScript) plus some extra libraries, but it is 100% like a normal programming experience, the language syntax is pretty much half way between JS & Java (AS3 is basically ECMA4 IIRC, a newer version of JS essentially though Nick will no doubt correct this) so if you know either it should be fine. You write code and can design visual components using (M)XML, without having to much about with animations or timelines like in traditional Flash... it's just regular development but at the end the compiler generates a .SWF flash file instead of a .EXE or .JAR.

Flex is by far the #1 thing that agents call me about, and I have Java, C++ & .net on my CV as well. There are a lot of highly paid roles in the banking sector involving Flex the last year or two.

[VectraMan]

I see quite a few emails asking for Flex too (I have "actionscript" on my c.v., because I've done some, even though I've never used Flash).

I think Macromedia added classes to Javascript with ActionScipt2 before the ECMA people did the same with the (aborted) ECMAScript 4 spec. I think it's ridiculous that all this effort has gone into improving JS performance but nobody's adopted classes in JS yet - but that's a different argument.

[d000hg]

There are classes in JS aren't there, just not using the same approach as C++/Java/C#? Aren't JS classes created using prototyping? Which is something AS2 allowed as well as normal class declaration, IIRC

[oversteer]

Yes, prototyping is possible in all sorts of weird and wonderful ways. It makes my brain hurt. The Packt book is quite good at explaining it (14 different ways)

[Normie]

Yes, prototyping is possible in all sorts of weird and wonderful ways. It makes my brain hurt. The Packt book is quite good at explaining it (14 different ways)

Just saw this on Jobserve today:

http://www.jobserve.com/EA6BAFD5003F166D2.job

Pretty good rates - £500-£600/day for security cleared Flex developers.

Might have to read up on Flex myself