Learning Flex 4: Advice [closed] - apache-flex

Closed. This question is opinion-based. It is not currently accepting answers.
Want to improve this question? Update the question so it can be answered with facts and citations by editing this post.
Closed 3 years ago.
Improve this question
So, the company I'm working at uses Flex and Java for their product.
Currently, I'm just an XML editor, but I would like to get my hands dirty with
some of the technology they use as soon as possible.
I was wondering if anyone who has learned Flex could possibly give me some advice
on the best way to learn Flex as quickly as possible without getting burnt out and maybe
some things you wish you had known prior to learning Flex.
I know with most technologies I've learned there are those things you wished you had known sooner.
I'm currently working my way through the book "Adobe Flex 4 Training from the Source vol 1". So far everything is pretty easy(I'm up to array collections), but I'm not sure how effective following the examples in this book really is.
Thanks in advance.

Along with videos and demos, find a small project which would work well with a Flex UI and start implementing it. New languages and frameworks are hard to understand until you actually have a problem to solve using them. Canned demos and "hello world" style applications are great for an introduction, but (in my experience) don't do a lot to move you forward in your overall competency level.

This series of videos comes courtesy of Adobe:
http://macromediastudiomx.com.br/devnet/flex/videotraining.html
I also found David Tucker's introduction to the Cairngorm framework very helpful
http://www.davidtucker.net/category/cairngorm/

You could join a Flex User's Group.

Related

Future of Google Closure open source project [closed]

Closed. This question is opinion-based. It is not currently accepting answers.
Want to improve this question? Update the question so it can be answered with facts and citations by editing this post.
Closed 8 years ago.
Improve this question
I love using the Closure library and the ideas behind using the Closure Compiler with the library. I've used it in several projects already, such as Post This For Me. A resent project.
I'm thinking about using Closure on a huge project I've got coming up where I'll be working with lots of developers who aren't as up to speed as me.
One thing I don't like about using Closure is the lack of good documentation, help and examples across the web.
My question is, what is the future of the open source Closure project? Has Google given up on it? I know it's used an awful lot inside Google but I rarely see it being used elsewhere on the web. Should I steer my team towards using it or might I be making a huge mistake?
Thanks in advance for your help and advice. Hope maybe some Googlers might see this.
My question is, what is the future of the open source Closure project? Has Google given up on it?
The project is still very active - inside Google as well as out. I know of several large organizations who use it external to Google. As an external contributor to the Closure-compiler project, I have a bi-weekly video call with the rest of the project team.
One thing I don't like about using Closure is the lack of good documentation, help and examples across the web.
Yes this is an issue - specifically with Closure-library. The code itself is highly self-documenting, however, the official documentation of the API is out of date and needs regenerated. This is something I raised directly to contacts in Google so hopefully it will be fixed soon. The API documentation is generated directly from comments in the source code, so it's all still there though.

If a codebase includes Twitter Bootstrap, should I use it in preference to hand-coding? [closed]

Closed. This question is opinion-based. It is not currently accepting answers.
Want to improve this question? Update the question so it can be answered with facts and citations by editing this post.
Closed 9 years ago.
Improve this question
A codebase includes Twitter Bootstrap, I can achieve a design for a component without using Twitter Bootstrap classes & elements. I can also achieve the design using Twitter Bootstrap classes & elements, overriding styles that are not applicable (but come with the built-in classes from Twitter Bootstrap). Which approach should I favor?
If the project already includes Bootstrap, it would probably be best to stick to the conventions of the project and use Bootstrap. If you have full control of the project you might want to remove Bootstrap, but either way it would be good to keep things consistent throughout.
Ask other coders you work with. If you're going to rewrite in your own way all the stuff that others are using and getting for free from Bootstrap, you will not make anyones life any easier.
This is probably going to result in very subjective answers, but I'll try to answer as well as I can.
I think it depends on the goals for your project, as well as the target design you have in mind.
If your priority is quick and low effort, maybe you want to use Bootstrap. That's where it seems to slot into development - when you don't want to, or can't, spend the time to do a custom job.
If you're hoping to end up with a project that looks like effort has gone into it, avoiding the cookie cutter feel you get from a popular visual framework is probably worth the effort.

GUI internals, looking for turorials [closed]

Closed. This question needs to be more focused. It is not currently accepting answers.
Want to improve this question? Update the question so it focuses on one problem only by editing this post.
Closed 8 years ago.
Improve this question
There are tons of resources on how to program using the APIs of various widget toolkits but I can't seem to find much in the way of a tutorial on how to create widget toolkits themselves or how they work n detail. They are basically just black boxes to me right now.
There is some info on QT:
http://qt-project.org/wiki/Category:QtInternals
but it seems quite specific to QT and not geared towards general theory.
Could anyone point me to some resources?
Thanks for reading
There are powerpoint presentaion slides on the following link:
http://aplcenmp.apl.jhu.edu/~davids/605741/handouts/6_SWT_Programming.pdf
Also you may have a look on pdf given on the following link:
http://www.loria.fr/~dutech/DDZ/SWT.pdf
It would have been great to know which programming language you are using (or you'll use) to develop widgets.
Anyways,there is a link which shows the basic concepts behind widgets and also their creation:
http://star.pst.qub.ac.uk/idl/Widget_Programming_Concepts.html
Go through the tutorial/description to see if it meets your need.
Hope it'll help you.

devoloper drupal manual [closed]

Closed. This question is opinion-based. It is not currently accepting answers.
Want to improve this question? Update the question so it can be answered with facts and citations by editing this post.
Closed 8 years ago.
Improve this question
I am looking for a Tutorial for developers in drupal, I don't know anything about drupal so I need a tutorial that explain very well,
in main page of drupal I can't find a tutorial who explain since the most basic about it
thanks for the advices!
Here: http://drupal.org/documentation
It's official Drupal documentation. It should be enough for starters.
This list of books is a good place to start as a developer, but assume that you know PHP. If you just mean sitebuilding, but not coding, try here. I find that often, the more comprehensive approach a book takes (as opposed to sometimes piecemeal info in online docs) can be more supportive for a total beginner.
Simpletest Tutorial here.This may helpful
Honestly the developer docs are all very good but I find you can't beat a book to work through.
Set yourself small tasks and work through them one at a time. Something like:
Install Drupal
Create a new content type
Create some pages
Install a ready made theme
Create a theme from scratch
Install some modules
And so on.
Just make little goals and go from there. The learning curve is pretty steep.
If you have any more specific questions, ask them on here on the dedicated Drupal site.

Where's a good place to learn how to do good UI? [closed]

Closed. This question is off-topic. It is not currently accepting answers.
Want to improve this question? Update the question so it's on-topic for Stack Overflow.
Closed 11 years ago.
Improve this question
My company is smaller. So unfortunately, we don't have the budget to afford a good (or bad) UI designer/developer. So we do programmer's UI. As you can imagine, it gets us by but it's not good at all.
Well what I'm looking for is a good resource that shows or explains how to have good layout and intuitive control placement in an Web app (or even Desktop app). Are there any tutorials or web sites that any of you would suggest?
If you need some help about software UI , Apple wrote this doc', i think it could be a good beginning :
http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/AppleHIGuidelines/XHIGIntro/XHIGIntro.html%23//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP30000894-TP6
More generally you can also throw a look at these websites : http://sixrevisions.com/usabilityaccessibility/20-websites-to-help-you-master-user-interface-design/
http://dzineblog.com/2010/03/best-user-interface-design-resources-the-round-up.html
Read up on Information Architecture. This will give you some understand behind the science of UX/UI which will in turn help you design your UI. I am a programmer myself, and have only read a few books but I now understand the impact of design. Especially since to your users, the UI is the application.
For example, there are some defined ways on which a user interacts with a site - browse, search, and interactive. A site should accomodate all because each user has different preferences.
IA Institute Reading List
The Humane Interface - this book can get very detailed talking about how many clicks someone has to do to perform a task, but this makes a huge impact if they have to do it all day long!
When it comes to design and UI then you should take a look at Microsoft's Toolbox site. It helps you learn the design principles and do design practicals using Microsoft Expression Studio (a UI prototyping tool). Check out the site here: Microsoft Design Toolbox

Resources