The great frameworks debate

This past week at the New York Flex User Group, Yakov Fain compared and contrasted 3 Flex frameworks (Cairngorm, PureMVC, and Mate). Yakov also showed an application his company is planning to release that is a code generator - creating both server and client side code (very similar to the Flex Builder CF wizard for building an LCDS app, only a bit more robust in the amount of code it generates and the options for server side technologies). The evening began with a quick examination/explanation of Flex itself, as a framework.

Attendance was great (60 people) and audience interest and participation was extraordinary. When the end of the presentation turned to an open discussion, it took very little time for the age old frameworks debate to ensue. Those of you who know my love for stirring the pot when it comes to topics like this may be surprised to know that I didn't get too involved in the actual framework "yes-no" side of the discussion. Even so, it felt funny being outside the CF world and getting stuck in the middle of the same religious debate that we CF developers are all too used to.

Actionscript is a language that I feel frameworks can bring a lot to when architected well... but I also feel that the Flex Framework alone is sufficient for most projects - especially given the size of the average Flex app. That said, I had never seen Mate before and after seeing Yakov's preso. thought that it looked pretty slick - I definitely plan to take a closer look at it sometime soon.

Getting back to the meeting itself, conversations lasted well over an hour after the meeting had ended. Though I don't want to fuel any fires, it's hard to ignore the enthusiasm and attendance witnessed at the meeting. So, I'm planning to hold a debate on Frameworks in Flex at an upcoming meeting. It will be a properly run debate with tables, time limits, and moderation. If anyone who reads this feels strongly about the topic of Flex frameworks (on either side of the argument), and thinks they'd make a good member of the debate at the table, please let me know (simon at horwith dot com). As soon as I've got a good team for both sides of the debate, I'll schedule it for an upcoming meeting.