Cf book? Hosting? Status?

[elemental70]

Hey all! I've done PHP, playing with Ruby, but always seem to come back to Coldfusion. My questions are:

Is there a reasonably priced CF host for Canada? So far I've found Netkeepers and they also support php on the same plan.

IS it worth it (yes I've read Kevin's article) to keep up with CF? I would like to myself as its another option for me to provide client solutions. But I keep hearing its dead jim!

and....

Since Sitepoint has now covered, ASP.net, php, ruby, mysql...for the love of all that is holy, why oh why don't they do a CF book? I'd certainly by it as although I love Forta's WACK (Gee, that sounds kinda kinky) it is always good to have another book to fall back on. I met Forta, and that is a very passionate man, nice too. Lugged MX WACK all the way to Toronto and he signed it.

I figure if Sitepoint is truly for developers, regardless of platform, then the books should reflect that. I wonder if they would want to resurrect the CF blog? I'm game...to write.....

[neilmerton]

that's a very good point - especially considering the amount of enthusiatic ColdFusion delvelopers on this forum! i'm sure there would be more than enough volunteers to manage the Blog successfully.

[usachrisk]

I'd certainly enjoy working on a CF project like either of those. I've also noticed the CF Blog is more or less dead, but I think there are so many well done ColdFusion blogs out there (and aggregators) that there's never a lack of information available.

[creole]

Sitepoint is going to go where the users are. If they start losing users to other sites, they'll sit up and take notice.

If you're jonesing for a CF blog fix, look no further than www.fullasagoog.com or www.feed-squirrel.com, both RSS aggregators whose builders are heavily involved in the CF community.

[cgriefer]

But I keep hearing its dead jim!

i've been using ColdFusion since version 1.5 (when it was actually "Cold Fusion" (2 words))...circa 1996. want to know how many times i've heard that? ColdFusion is dead. ColdFusion is dying. ColdFusion is on its way out.

ColdFusion is the grandaddy of them all. The first web application server of its kind. Before CF, if you wanted interactivity, you needed Perl/CGI.

ASP came along from MS. Free. CF survived.
PHP came along. Free. CF survived.
JSP came along. Free. CF survived.
A number of other similar technologies have come (and gone) in the past 11 years. CF is still here and will continue to be here for a long, long time.

ignore the crap you hear from ignorant folks who are either biased towards other technologies or haven't taken the time to thoroughly research the subject.

Just to be abundantly clear...i'm not trying to stir up a flame war about which technology is "better". I'm not claiming that CF is better than any other technology out there. It's my preference which is just that. Preference. My only aim here is to help convince you that CF is not dead (or dying or even sick). if that concern is the only thing stopping you from checking it out, then you have no reason not to check it out

(also...http://weblogs.macromedia.com/mxna/ is another good blog aggregator)

[elemental70]

Actually, I've used CF for basic stuff before and quite like it. But I'm a bit frustrated that one of the premiere web reference sites seems to shortchange it. I love SP. I think if SP did a poll of its cf users it would discover what to put into a cf book. I personally would like to see the more advanced features explained and I'd love a full tutorial style from basic site up to advanced (using the same site example).

[elemental70]

Whats the deal with Flex?

[cgriefer]

Flex is a standalone product. Nothing to do with CF other than CF 7.02 made it easier to develop Flex sites using CF.

Flex is basically a compiled SWF that is created using a combination of Actionscript and MXML. But you don't need to know CF to create a Flex app, nor do you need to know Flex to create a CF app.

[jonese]

The blog is back! http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/category/coldfusion/ if you want to guest blog get in touch with me!

[creole]

I'd be interested in blogging.

What might be a good idea is to do something similar to Ray Camden's coding contest that he sponsored a year or so back. He offered prizes, but we could offer recognition.

Maybe we pose a simple (or not so simple) problem and get people to write code for the solution. It would be a good way to get people involved, and we could also allow people to suggest problems.

[r937]

... allow people to suggest problems.

here's one: explain components for an experienced programmer with no background in object programming

[jonese]

creole: Great ideas and forward me any blogging ideas or actual articles. I'll also be highlighting forums posts here at SP in hopes to help bring a bit more traffic to the forums, so i think problems like these would be a great topic starter so everyone can chime in rather than just my view

Rudy: great idea but i think it would also serve us to talk about it from a spaghetti coder as well how about starting a thread....

thanks all!

[creole]

Rudy...didn't you also mean to add "without using the word 'instantiate'."

[r937]

yeah, without using any of those "uh oh" terms

eric, you want me to start a thread? i'd really rather not

instead, have a look at these threads, to see how others have tried (and failed) to explain components to me --

• An introductory look at cfc's without using "dirty words"
• CF CFCs
• base cfc framework

[jonese]

will do. this is old but where did i go wrong with this article

http://www.sitepoint.com/article/com...s-introduction

[r937]

you did not go wrong, man, you just lost me when you started saying things like "share methods with other CFCs, much like Java and PHP classes" and "fill the component with methods" -- i have no idea what you're talking about

then on page two, where you show your simple CFC, i am left wondering "how is this any better than a simple CFQUERY inside a CFINCLUDE?"

finally, on the third page, where i would simply show query results using CFOUTPUT QUERY=, you've got a bunch of other mumbo-jumbo, followed by CFOUTPUT QUERY=, so i'm left wondering if my old way isn't simpler after all

there's a lot to be said for simplicity, you know, and if i have to wrap a CFQUERY with all kinds of fancy frilly paper only to have to unwrap it all again, i'm left wondering what's the point

so you didn't go wrong, you just lost me, that's all

[jonese]

got it. i'll see what i can come up with

[r937]

listen, eric, i really do apologize, i'm sorry

sometimes i just don't know when to keep quiet

i'm in no need of a cfc tutorial, so don't go down that road just on my account

i realize i come off sounding negative and frustrated, and i apologize

that's not my intention

sorry

[creole]

jerk!

Just kidding Rudy, although I do wonder if you're at all interested in learning CFCs. I don't think it's a big deal if you don't ever learn them...but they are helpful.

[jonese]

rudy,

get over yourself i wasn't going to do an all out explanation, at least not yet. BUT your post did give me an idea for a CFC starter series Basically i'll show little ways in which CFC's are useful in hope one of them will spur those like you to learn more and try them out more

And please keep talking, i don't want anyone to feel like they can't suggest an idea or provide an opinion.

[neilmerton]

talking of cfcs, here's another little part of them i wouldn't mind someone exlplaining: using an init method to create the instance (if i've got the wording correctly). it one aspect i've not yet got my head around. here's another - the different ways of calling a component (i.e. 'cfinvoke' and 'cfobject').

more ideas for your little 'talk', eric.