A head-on attack with the Flex programming language

I’ll disappoint fans and anyone who arrived here by mistake. The subject here is separate from the
Macromedia Flex project. It’s the Czech programming language Flex. According to
its creators, Flex’s syntax comes from Ada and Pascal. Its main features include strict type checking and object-oriented design. An associated project for
web applications is modFlex. So much for the publicity blitz that
swept through Czech technology sites, with Root on June 8, 2004 (A New Czech Programming Language), and Interval.cz on June 10, 2004 (
The Czech Programming Language Flex and modFlex).

Judging by the comments on the articles, the language wasn’t warmly received. The main drawbacks were these.

• Noncommercial use only
• Windows only
• The API source code isn’t public
• The language is closed overall

There are other issues, including a small developer community and limited support. That’s hardly surprising, though.
Flex is brand-new and little known. My own objection is to the syntax
inspired by Pascal and Ada. The “magic” of begin and end would
take me a while to get used to.

The Flex project spawned a web extension, modFlex, as an alternative to PHP. It runs as a module
for the Apache web server. Development packages also offer
integration with text editors,
including Eclipse.

Do we need Flex and modFlex?

I’d start with a bold claim from the Flex authors themselves.

Flex is a more comprehensive language than, say, Java or C#, and offers more possibilities without requiring a large collection of libraries for things as basic as multitasking.

That already raises questions. Doesn’t a language’s breadth depend in part on its range of libraries? Is
multitasking really the measure of it? You also have to distinguish the languages from the platforms. Among their many advantages, Java and .NET
are open and keep growing and developing. Many multinational companies and major software players stand behind Java.
Microsoft stands behind .NET. By comparison, Flex and A&&L soft s. r. o. are kittens that might occasionally
get a few crumbs.

For enterprise solutions we have Java and .NET. For the dynamic web we have established, popular choices such as PHP, Perl and Python, all with
large communities and developer support. Flex has the advantage of Czech-language support and a base for local developers, but
widespread adoption looks unlikely. In my humble opinion, Flex and modFlex won’t spread far and will quietly disappear into history. Flex is like
a flat stone skimmed across a pond. It makes two or three rings, then vanishes under the surface for good… and who would look for it?