Developing Wowza app: Flex vs Flash

Question

First some background info: My best language is php, but i also know some very basic c++, c, java, pascal and objective c 2.0 I have never taken time to learn javascript, it always looked scary to me.

However i'm playing around with Wowza media server & I want to make some app for it. The source code for the example apps are delivered in Action script 3, action script 2 and flex.

Which language could I best start learning considering my previous programming experience(easy to learn), scalability (don't want much overhead), and i also would like if there are lots of free lance developers who could write code for it (future plans).

My best guess is to learn Action script 3? I think it is a very mainstream language so lots of freelance codemonkeys, lots of tutorials to start with, however a little bit hard for me personally in the beginning.

Answer 1

Short answer: Learn AS3.

Expanded answer: AS3 because it's current and it's a good proper OOP language. It will be very familiar to anyone with C++ or Java experience. AS 2.0 is now outdated, it wasn't great when it was current.

"Flex" isn't a language, per se; mxml is an xml-based markup used for structuring Flex apps, but AS3 is the programming language that you will need to be a Flex developer. The word Flex can also refer to the framework (a bunch of components for RIA development, mostly), the Flex Builder (now called FlashBuilder) Eclipse-based IDE, and also the Flex SDK which includes the AS3 and MXMLC compilers along with the libraries for making both Flex framework applications as well as pure AS3 applications that target the Flash Player but aren't Flex framework apps.

Answer 2

Use AS3, noone in their mind would AS2 these days except in legacy code. Flex is a UI framework for Flash(AS3) so to use Flex you will need to learn AS3 anyway.

Answer 3

AS2 is awful, AS3 would look pretty familiar and Flex is a lot of XML, if you like that kind of thing.