Eclipse is so much better for coding than the Flash IDE. With Eclipse, you’ve got a ton of extensions and plugins to add support for more languages and all sorts of other features. Now it’ll be easy to set up complex builds with Ant, connect to source control systems, and do other “real” developer things.

Flash certainly won’t become irrelevant. The Flex framework is a little heavy, so using it for small projects is overkill. As you said, highly interactive sites will still be better in Flash. Designers certainly won’t be leaving, and that’s half or more of the Flash users out there.

Then along comes flex. The component framework is solid and stocked with functionality, and relatively easy to skin, and altho there are a few oddities or annoyances, its *NOTHING* compared to working in Flash. Working with many people on a project in flex is feasible and efficient too and I’d argue more so than Flash. Oh and compile time – I no longer get coffee breaks based on when i set to compile.

Any flash coder who doesn’t love flexbuilder just for eclipse hasn’t used it enough. I might get shot for saying that. Using the eclipse environment makes you realize what you have been missing out all these years. I cringe at the thought of going back.

Does that mean Flex is better than Flash or vice versa, or that Flash will become irrelavant now that Flex is more matured? I’d argue no – they each have their place. If a client needed a really interactive and high customized interface, I’d still be leaning towards Flash for the ideal solution, since there is still a learning curve on acquiring that kinda functionality in Flex.

RIA was a term coined by Macromedia circa 2000 as the data capabilities in the Flash Player/ActionScript became robust enough for use on a larger scale; an application scale. With this emergence of capability came the emergence of a type of content creator that understood programming, and that was also artistic/creative. This new hybrid wanted to maximize these new features and demanded more from the Flash authoring environment.

Over the years, that’s exactly what happened. New screens-centric metaphors saw their way into the product. Eventually more data connectivity was added to include making the existing XML parsing a native part of the Flash Player, web services support and eventually remote object connectivity (a la Flash Remoting). ActionScript got a new face in ActionScript 2 and countless new classes were added to it’s libraries.

To be sure, this inclusion of the programmer often upset designers who felt ignored.

In recognition of the evolution that had taken place with the product line, enterprise customers began to take notice of what Flash as a platform could deliver. They would purchase a copy of the Flash authoring tool, invest in some training for a few developers, and set off into the sunrise with fresh ideas of application bliss dancing in their heads.

Then reality struck as they encountered the countless metaphors that were latent to Flash’s animation-centric past. Timelines, tweens, keyframes, libraries, symbols and so on confounded all but the most adept. Many projects that started out as a new vision were tossed in the circular file never to see the light of day. What enterprise developers and architects needed was a metaphor that was familiar to their style of development.

A declarative markup (XML schema) that exposed a rich class library of components and utilities, to which business logic could be added through the use of an OO language, and that could be compiled to run on the ubiquitous Flash Player – that’s what was really needed. Welcome, Flex.

To be sure, it’s not necessarily a binary choice. In fact the two can work very well together. Build a SWC in Flash authoring and deploy it to Flex (and vice versa). Load SWF assets and library symbols created using Flash authoring into Flex for a truly immersive RIA. Use the metaphor that works best for you. Not to over-simplify but…

If you’re an enterprise developer, then it is likely that you’ll feel right at home in Flex. If you’re a multimedia content creator, then it is likely that the Flash authoring environment will be more accomodating. If you’re one of those lucky few that have gifts in both areas, then you can use both – creating media assets in the Flash authoring world, and layering and compositing that content with data in the Flex world.

Then as the sun sets on more successful projects for both the enterprise programmer, and the creative professional, the Flash Community grows – and that’s good for all of us.