[OT] Aligning commercial interests with Apache Flex (was) RE: [OT] Interesting stat from JetBrains

["Guthmann, Scott" <sg...@on3solutions.com>]

> Hi,
> - ActionScript/Flex support is included in IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate Edition only [1]
> - 30-day free fully functional trial period [2]. Afterwards you can ask sales@jetbrains.com to extend trial period.
> - members of open source projects (e.g. Apache Flex committers) can apply for a free license [3]
> - IntelliJ IDEA personal license costs $199 whereas Flash Builder is $699
> --
> Alexander Doroshko
> IntelliJ IDEA Flash Team Lead

IMO, this high volume list is not the best way to approach developers with offers for a new IDE. There are several ways I can think of that would help this project while also aligning with your commercial interests / offers, though.

I think Apache Flex needs evangelism.

I would suggest contacting each Apache Flex UGM listed here [1] and offer to send or have one of your JetBrains evangelists present training on the use of your IDE to each of the Apache Flex User groups globally. I am the UGM for RIA5280 & I would love to host your presenter. The topic is up to you - but consider just explaining to my developers how to use your IDE with Apache Flex 4.9.

Many involved in the project would like to be able to show commercial applications (reference customers) who used the Apache Flex 4.9 SDK to develop their applications. We would like to show applications built with AF4.9 here [2]. IMO, there is no harm if your team helped create these case studies which promote that the application was built using the JetBrains IDE ItelliJ, too.

We know we also lack documentation that shows very small code snippets and examples of how each feature / command in the SDK is used. This type of full featured toolkit documentation / training would really help new developers and technologists to feel comfortable starting a new project in Apache Flex. If you have an interest, this is also a way for your team to take screen clips while coding using the IntelliJ IDE and describe how each part of the SDK is used. Here is a recent message on this topic [3]. Again, this reference documentation could showcase the IntelliJ IDE and also help complete examples for each part of the ASDOCS documentation.

[1] https://cwiki.apache.org/FLEX/user-groups.html
[2] http://flex.apache.org/
[3] http://markmail.org/thread/ttstwwnhrgkzjehd