This is the first in a series of articles that Flex architects from Farata Systems will be posting over the next several months. We’ll introduce you to our own class library that goes by the working name theriabook. Over the past couple of years we’ve been successfully using various coding techniques and custom components that turned the application development in Flex into a RAD project.

I’ll start with some history and definitions. While working on the book “RIA with Flex and Java”, we’ve been building a library of reusable components for the book samples. Since the book writing was our moonlight activity, we’ve had a chance to try all these components on the battlefield – during our consulting gigs with various clients. Unfortunately, last week we had to politely reject the offer from our publisher, SYS-CON Media, to write the second edition of that book. We just don't have time.

There are three ways of writing software:

1. Write the code from scratch.
2. Pick a framework and write the code by the rules dictated by this framework.
3. Use selected components from one or more class libraries.

To see the difference between a framework and a class library, visualize a construction site of a new housing development. In one home site, you see a frame of the future house, rooms are laid out, and electrical wires are hanging everywhere. The site next to it just has a pile of construction materials – Anderson windows, 2x4s, etc. Of course, the latter gives you a lot more freedom to decide how your future house will look…as long as you know how to construct it.

We like freedom, and will be presenting not only our “Anderson windows,” but also instructions  for using them during construction of your application. Best practices, as we currently see them. Your input is greatly appreciated and if you have your own construction materials or tricks of the trade, please add them to our pile.

All objects from our theriabook library will be available for free as an open source software governed by the MIT license – the same as the Flex Framework.

Without further ado, let’s go to our first best practice.