Flex Mobile 4.6 introduces Stage Text - how do you render HTML text with it?

Question

I have a little chat component in a Flex Mobile app that I just upgraded to SDK 4.6.  The chat component has a text area displaying messages and they are HTML formatted via the following:
StyleableTextField(textArea).htmlText += myHTMLText;
Worked in SDK 4.5 but StyleableTextField is not a part of the new Stage Text framework introduced in SDK 4.6.
How do I HTML format the messages in my chat text area now?

Answer 1

Thanks much for your response.
Hmmm...  That appears to work but also causes a runtime exception where there was none before the 4.6 upgrade.  It occurs when I autoscroll on receiving a new message in the chat, something that worked fine in 4.5.
I guess I'm kind of wondering what the best practice is here.  Maybe I'm just doing this wrong altogether.  I'm finding it very difficult to implement probably one of the most basic features one would find in any collaborative app - something that was very easy in Flex 3 - the chat pane.  I've had one functioning fine for about 3 years.  Not so much in Flex mobile.
Chat is very simple functionality.  When you receive a new message from afar...
1.  add it to a TextArea with some nice formatting
2.  auto scroll far enough so the user can see the new message in its entirety. 
Nothing difficult at all.
Why are these two things difficult to find in the TextArea in Flex mobile?  It almost seems as though it's something we're not supposed to be doing? 
The answer here seems to be don't use Stage Text.  Revert to an older TextArea skin.  Why?  What text area doesn't need formatting as an option?  What text area doesn't need to be auto scrolled here and there?  Or am I just going about this wrong?  Maybe using the wrong components?
I guess for now I can revert to 4.5 skin, but now the code I used to auto scroll on receiving a new message throws a null pointer exception.  I've been using the valueCommit property to auto scroll, as follows:
valueCommit="textArea.scroller.verticalScrollBar.value = textArea.scroller.verticalScrollBar.maximum"
Haven't had a problem prevously.  But this now throws:
TypeError: Error #1009: Cannot access a property or method of a null object reference.
          at com.components::ChatWindow/__textArea_valueCommit()
What's the best practice to accomplish this and also to be able to take advantage of the latest and greatest?