How Easy is AIR?

Alright, so in the process of doing dev with Flex, there will most likely come an urge to write an AIR App, I mean it is easy enough to change the setting in Flex Builder, (when starting a project) or the simple switch to , and of course the fact that you can use HTML/JS to write an AIR app.

So, I gave into the temptation on the weekend. A client of mine was talking about doing some data comparison, and even emailed to ask if I had a good website for images of gauges... fine, a quick Google and I was done. Now, if you are a Flex Dev or are considering it, I recommend checking out Tour De Flex it is totally worth it. The AIR App has tons of sample apps, and demo code to get you started. I of course remembered that there were a few sample apps with gauges. :)

So, I decided that instead of just having static gauge images, I would write an AIR app that displayed the comparison in the guage form. I worked on it for about an hour, changing the gauge display, and hooking in multiple instances, not just a single Gauge, hooked in some static data, changed the chrome, and I think I had a pretty nice app, in an hour. It was just so cool.

I of course sent a screen shot along to the client with a 'What do you think of this?' kinda question, and they were floored. Now obviously for it to work the way it needs to work, I have to get a better understanding of the SQLite database that I can place behind this, but it can't be that much different, right?

Anyways, if you develop Flex, and you have never tried making an AIR App, just do it! It is easy and fun, and your mind will blossom with possibilities... mine has.