Adobe's James Ward on Upcoming Flex 3 Enhancements and Silverlight

Adobe’s James Ward talks about the upcoming release of Adobe Flex 3.0 which is scheduled for early 2008. James discusses the additions and updates of the Flex 3 SDK and Flex Builder 3. He also comments on Silverlight, Microsoft's entry in the RIA market.

 

Some of the most noteworthy changes to both the free Flex 3 SDK and Flex Builder 3 include:

A new memory and performance profiler in Flex Builder

Support for creating applications which utilize the Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR)

ActionScript class name refactoring

Significantly improved first-run application startup time when using the Persistent Framework Cache

Numerous improvements to the Design View in Flex Builder

Flex 3 also comes with new components like:

• Persistent Framework Cache
• Advanced DataGrid
  

There are said to be numerous foundational improvements to Flex regarding accessibility, runtime localization, and built-in deep linking support (browser back, bookmarking, etc).

The Flex 3 SDK will be free and will most likely be MPL licensed. A dual license will also be offered for OEMs who are unable to bundle MPL software. The licensing for Flex Builder 3 has not been announced yet.

To see a full list of the planned features for Flex 3, see the Roadmaps:
The Flex 3 SDK Roadmap http://flexwiki.adobe.com/confluence/display/ADOBE/Flex+3+Planning
The Flex Builder 3 Roadmap http://flexwiki.adobe.com/confluence/display/ADOBE/Flex+Builder+3+Planning