What CF book(or any other) is your bible.
I've been doing CF for a while now, but there is one book which stays by side through development, ColdFusion 5 Language Reference by Ben Forta. Though it doesn't get much use now having it there has saved me loads of time, and its as i reached for it today i thought about how indispensable it is. Its just the ultimate quick reference too look up a tag or a function attribute, plus it's small enough to take anywhere with me. I'm hoping one day Ben can find time to update the book for CFMX. The other one i try and keep near me is Advanced ColdFusion MX Application Development , which always handing when doing other bits and peices.
So what book, whether used a lot or not, do you like having by your side?
Comments
I use those blue CFML reference manuals that come with the purchase of CFMX. Sure, they may be generic and devoid of big names like Ben Forta and others, but they get the job done just the same. Although, I too use Forta's Advanced CFMX Application Development.
Then there's my trusty Oracle 8i The Complete Reference by Kevin Loney and George Koch.
I have others within arm's reach as well, but on a regular basis, these are my 3 musketeers.
Then there's my trusty Oracle 8i The Complete Reference by Kevin Loney and George Koch.
I have others within arm's reach as well, but on a regular basis, these are my 3 musketeers.
Forta's Adv CFMX App Dev 3/e has been good to me (except not too much on corba--one of the reasons I got it--but the digging has been fun), and on others, I keep Meyer's More EM on CSS together with a couple of Addison Wesley's publishings on eclipse handy
Ben Forta's books have not been of much help to me because my friends are always borrowing it!
So most times, am left with hitting CTRL+F1. The online help has been of much help indeed.
So most times, am left with hitting CTRL+F1. The online help has been of much help indeed.
Ben Forta's books worked for me while on the learning curve, Jeff Peter's book on CF datatypes is my most recent favourite and helped me out in turning a few slugs into speed demons. Hal Helm's book on CFC's gets looked at every now and again when I find things aren't working.
If I need CF language info because I forgot, mainly after weekends, I just use Google nowadays.
- PaulWeston
If I need CF language info because I forgot, mainly after weekends, I just use Google nowadays.
- PaulWeston
I was looking at Jeff Peters book the other day actually. I take it at 157 pages its direct to the point? What kind of style is it, lots of code, teaching, essays etc?
Programming ColdFusion MX (2nd Ed.) is my bible.
By Rob Brooks-Bilson
O'Reilly
2nd Edition August 2003
ISBN: 0-596-00380-3
By Rob Brooks-Bilson
O'Reilly
2nd Edition August 2003
ISBN: 0-596-00380-3
Andy - the Jeff Peters book was a dream come true for me. A lot like Hal Helms' book, straight to the point. I thought I knew enough about data manipulation in CF but this opened my eyes. It packs everything in tightly but doesn't skimp on the detail. Like Hal Helms' book, no waffle. Something, er, Ben Forta needs to take note of. For the price, give it a try. It'll take you less than a day to read it and fully understand it.
Most of the time, I wrote CF code a particular way. I worked out queries in the database that returned result sets that needed very little doing to them by CF other than displaying.
After reading the book, I adopted a different approach and my CF code sped up considerably. Instead of queries with all the information in, I dragged bits from raw tables from the database in one swoop (or two at most) and built data structures and lookups with pointers in memory. It reduced data transfer time from the database, reduced database load and CF easily handled the building of in-memory datasets. Yep, it's a lot more work but seeing the smile on the faces of the people who I delivered some of the recent tools to was well worth it. Whether this scales up to internet apps is another matter as it relies more on the speedy CF engine to do the work. It's swings and roundabouts, though. CF is strained a little more but data throughput is maximised and database load is minimised.
In a nutshell, the book worked for me bigtime.
Most of the time, I wrote CF code a particular way. I worked out queries in the database that returned result sets that needed very little doing to them by CF other than displaying.
After reading the book, I adopted a different approach and my CF code sped up considerably. Instead of queries with all the information in, I dragged bits from raw tables from the database in one swoop (or two at most) and built data structures and lookups with pointers in memory. It reduced data transfer time from the database, reduced database load and CF easily handled the building of in-memory datasets. Yep, it's a lot more work but seeing the smile on the faces of the people who I delivered some of the recent tools to was well worth it. Whether this scales up to internet apps is another matter as it relies more on the speedy CF engine to do the work. It's swings and roundabouts, though. CF is strained a little more but data throughput is maximised and database load is minimised.
In a nutshell, the book worked for me bigtime.
Paul, I have taken note of that, many times. :-) I am glad that those books are out there, there is no one size fits all when it comes to books, and my two big CF books are intended for specific audiances, not every audiance. Some books need brevity (my SQL and Regex books are written that way) and other books need tons of detail and hand-holding. I don't plan to write a CF book like the one you'd like, but others have done, and should continue to do so.
Adedeji, sorry, I think. :-)
Adedeji, sorry, I think. :-)
Ben - Your two CF books got me trained up in CF, there was nothing around that touched them for ye olde desktop apps developer that I was who found himself in a 'build a large CF app in a month' scenario. If it weren't for your books, I'd have been in my job for a fortnight. I've now been there two years and we're building a department around me. Quite an achievement. I learned to speed read your books though after a couple of chapters but that doesn't detract from the fact that they contained all the information I needed for the first six months. If anyone out there is rushing out to buy Ben's books, er, buy them one at a time as they're bloomin' heavy.
Give a thought to the size of the arms of the average programmer, only our finger tips are made of steel ;o)
Give a thought to the size of the arms of the average programmer, only our finger tips are made of steel ;o)
Ben, must admit only the other day got your Reg-ex book which has helped me get up to speed with the more advance stuff. I was actually meant to order the SQL book, don't even ask how i got them mixed, no doubt the reg-ex will be another one for the bible collection, especially for size.
Though as said in the blog would love to get the Language reference updated (inbetween the tour and general work ;o) ). I know the books with CFMX server covers most of it, but they are not as well presented or organised.
Though as said in the blog would love to get the Language reference updated (inbetween the tour and general work ;o) ). I know the books with CFMX server covers most of it, but they are not as well presented or organised.
Andy, I'd love to revise that book. But, it really did not sell well at all. Those who bought it love it, but too few bought it, and so it is very unlikely that the publisher will want to revise it. Still, I'll ask.
Ben, if they say yes consider me there. Alternatively even if it could be included with the server as a manual/reference(ish) book, that would be neat
Thanks for all the comments everyone
Thanks for all the comments everyone
For me, and I expect manu others, it's the full ColdFusion hardcopy docs that you can now get for $50 @ the Adobe Online Store. I think this is really great deal.
More here, including a breakdown of what you get for $50 (2,100+ pages of Adobe doc)...
http://www.dcooper.org/blog/client/index.cfm?mode=...
Damon
More here, including a breakdown of what you get for $50 (2,100+ pages of Adobe doc)...
http://www.dcooper.org/blog/client/index.cfm?mode=...
Damon
Leave us not forget: cfquickdocs
Besides Ben Forta's CF WACK, I refer to CFMX Developer's Cookbook by Peter Freitag, Brad Leupen, and Chris Reeves. Lots of good examples in that book of how do tasks with CF. If I've forgotton how to write a file using CF, the book has an example I can easily follow and adapt. The book's table of content makes it easy to find the example code I need.
