Flex Builder 3 or Flex 4 (Flash Builder 4 aka Gumbo)

Question

In order to learn flex as a beginner, which version should I go for or start i.e. Flex 3 or Flex 4 ?

As you might have noticed that both have different components and architecture.

Kindly advise it in details

Answer 1

I'd recommend starting on Flex 4. However, as you allude to, there are two component architectures within Flex. One is the Halo architecture. Halo is used prominently in Flex 2 and 3. The second one is named Spark and was introduced in Flex 4.

At this time, here is not component set parity between Halo and Spark; so you'll probably have to learn both component sets for some applications.

I would strongly suggest reading up on the Flex Component LifeCycle for Halo and Spark. Learn both of them--they are similar. When you start developing, start with Spark and then bring in Halo when Spark leaves you in the dust.

Answer 2

I would also go with 4 but first, for a beginner I would recommend to learn the life-process of the controls in a flex application, each time I find a colleague struggling with something if flex 4 or 3 it usually because not understanding how flex works behind the scened with the entire life-process like :updateDisplayList, commitProperties and more.