So flex 4 is out as an alpha release and promises better developer-designer workflow. Gumbo, or Flex builder 4 will be available shortly {read more on whats new in Gumbo}.
According to Matt Chotin this will be achieved through the use of a design tool called “Thermo”, better known as flash catalyst (on adobe wiki) which would allow the designer to “design” the interface graphics and layout using their favourite graphics editor such as Photoshop or Illustrator and import the graphics into catalyst which would then be used to prepare components from the design. Basic interactivity and component definitions can be added by the designer. Furthermore, the SDK also promises better integration of bitmap resources within the application. So that completes 2 stages of the process UI design and Interaction.
The catalyst data is sent over to the developer who can embed business logic into the interactions. Now this requires the use of additional components which are exposed in Flex 4. Sound exciting? Its a mixed feeling in my case. Skinning applications will be a lot easier for one. But from an architecture perspective, this could mean a nightmare, seeing the way Flex Builder 3 auto generates code.
For those of you trying to work on I18N enabled apps, don’t despair because the RTL text issue has been addressed in this release. However, this is only applicable to apps running Flex 4 on Flashplayer 10.
There seems to be a lot of stress on graphic and designer-developer productivity but Adobe seems to be missing out the core theme which is to work on a simplified micro-architecture for better code management and scalability. In my opinion, this shold have been top priority, now that Flex is making its way into large scale RIA’s.
Links for more info:
ThinkingCap - plugged in to the head 