Acknowledgments

Although most developers want to believe that choices related to technology are premised on purity, capability, and supremacy, the reality is that in the end it boils down to business—and technology as a tool to help businesses achieve their goals. In this book I try to keep this perspective in mind, because a well-rounded view will help you be successful. I’ve learned about this perspective—and so much more—from my manager and mentor Steve McClary, president of Amcom Technology.

In this second incarnation the book was made possible and better with my fellow authors Dan Orlando, John C. Bland II, and Joel Hooks. While I focused on the basics, Dan teaches you about working with lists, reusability, custom components, architecture, how to work with back end systems, and how to snazzy up your apps with themes and skins. John demystifies events, and provides the in-depth lowdown on pop-ups and view states, as well as adding pizzazz using effects, and how to take advantage of drag and drop. Joel covers Flex charting, effective techniques and tools for debugging, wrapping up a project in preparation for deployment, and application architecture using the RobotLegs framework.