Difference between Actionscript and Flex Builder 2? How do they differ in use?

Question

Can anyone tell me the difference layman/basic differences between Actionscript code and the Adobe Flex Builder 2 App? What would you use one or the other for? Which is easier to learn? How do both or either relate to the big picture of building web applications and interactive sites?

Answer 1

Flex is built on top of Flash, so think of Flash and ActionScript as the underlying technology, and Flex is a more specific application to help developers create certain types of applications more quickly and easily without having to worry about the dirty details, because it takes care of those for them. Flex is especially designed for multi-tier applications designed for web delivery, not so much for plain sites. Flex is only appropriate when you are looking to build robust, complex web applications.