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Better by design

Posted on 14 Aug 2009 at 14:43

Never underestimate the importance of design when it comes to website development. Kevin Partner tells you what you need to know

You need to copy this to your SDK folder, then create a new project in Flex Builder, and go to Project | Properties and select the Flex Compiler entry. Select the dropdown next to "Use a specific SDK" and select Flex 4.0 You'll also need to change the entry next to "Require Flash Player version" so it reads 10.0.0, and finally download and install the latest debug version of the Flash player.

This piece of bad news has a positive side. This framework is the most important feature upgrade to the Flash Player in many years, which opens up a whole new class of web applications to Flash and Flex developers, and the fact that it doesn't appear by default in any of the current generation tools means developers who make the effort to install it now and take the considerable time required to learn how it works will enjoy a huge head start over those who wait for it to be incorporated into Flash CS5 or Flex Builder 4.

I've spent much of the past two months working with the Text Layout Framework, and while it's been a struggle – due to both the complexity of the implementation and the lack of online examples – I've seen enough to convince me that it's the most important web development technology to come along in years.