Writing business apps, not flashy

Question

I work with a development community that shuns Flash because
it's perceived as a tool for creating "flashy" apps, and not
recognized at all for real solid businss apps involving payroll,
order processing, inventory management, etc.
I haven't worked with Adobe/Macromedia tools since
Director/Lingo many years ago. I work with many languages,
including C#, VB.NET, Java, and JavaScript (spent a lot of time
with the dearly departed Atmosphere product). I'm confused by CS4
and all of the other offerings.
What Flash-oriented tools can I download for trial that
should allow me to quickly create some "business professional"
screens? I'd like to demonstrate a UI that gives people the Ajax
look and feel that they crave, and some of the Flash "platform"
capabilities (event handling, integration with a back-end server)
but without confusing it with timelines and animations and other
features that get in the way of data entry and inquiry.
Thanks!

Answer 1

i think you hit the nail on the head there - UI
although Flash and AS3 is a very powerful language, and
growing, it's intent is mainly based on creating Rich Media
interactive design and not necessarily crunching huge amounts of
complex data (even though it can hand many functions of this type)
but when it comes to presenting data and UI interaction, Flash is
certainly among the top tools as can be evidenced by the fact the
FlashPlayer is installed on almost 'all' user system (i'm not
certain of the current figure something like 98%) I'd say that says
something. It's not 'just' for 'flashy' apps, but it's capabilities
lend to the creation of such with ease - and this really is a
matter of the designers choices - not the program - you can place a
simple textfield on a blank stage and call it good, that might look
more like things created with less 'graphically' oriented programs
- hell you can make it look 'green screen' if you want LOL! I
suppose the dev is the community also still use the old Epson green
bar printers too...
you can access a backend program, feed data to Flash and
present it in any way you wish, it's simply a matter of design,
which is one of the greatest aspects of the application. i think
that many of us that script at a more advanced level move away from
using the timeline except in certain instances, and create apps
that are dynamically constructed at run time, allowing for greater
flexibility - if there is not a need for an animation, simply don't
make one, it's not as though it is 'automatically' a part of the
process, if you simply need textfields, input fields and simple
buttons - only use those - i think that those who feel Flash is
just for that are simply jealous, because they realize that,
whatever program that are working in, it would be very difficult if
not impossible to create the effects, graphic quality and
interaction that is inherent to Flash.
as far as what to DL, you can get Flash free for a 30 day
trial, here at Adobe, although it will most likely take longer to
become proficient at AS3 (i'm certain you OOP skills will
accelerate your learning curve) it should be sufficient time to
build some basic apps.