Why do all of the Adobe example apps seem to use X/Y coordinates for layout?
Most likely because these example apps were built with Flex Builder using Design View (which I never use). Design View drops controls on the screen by default using absolute positioning. This makes total sense for demo applications, but I suspect that many Flex newbies start with Design View and therefore also default to absolute positioning in all of their apps. Here’s a relevant quote from Dan Martin (dmartin.org) on tips for the New Flex Developer (May, 2009). Avoid absolute layouts, using VBox and HBox to layout your MXMLs instead (or layout=”vertical/horizontal” on Application). Absolute layouts are easy enough to develop but a nightmare to maintain. When your business owner asks you to remove one thing, it takes seconds with a VBox/HBox design, and much longer with an absolute layout. The only exception to this recommendation is when performance requires it. VBox/HBox layouts require calculations to determine sizes. Usually, this is no big deal, but sometimes can cause problems.
