EdomGroup Blog

I just thought I would chime in on some of the extreme beating around of wishlist features I've seen lately. I will explain how I feel and go into some arguments that I think have been taken a little to the extreme as to where CF programming and the products around it are headed.

 

We Are Headed In The Right Direction

The great amount of argument about all of the features in CF and the attentive attitudes we are getting from Adobe, Bluedragon, and anyone with a stake in CF is nothing but encouraging. It makes me very proud to be a CF developer. I am very confident in our community's ability to make CF continue to be the best language for web development out there, no matter who the largest vendor is, etc. With that said, here are my thoughts:

 

Why I Want Interfaces and Other "OO"-reminiscent Mechanisms in CF

The reason for this is simple. There are many common tasks that we get involved in when using objects in any language. These include API development, data abstraction, and utility methods. CF supports objects (CFCs), why not support that nice suite of tools that developers in almost every other language as well as some CF developers expect?

This has absolutely nothing to do with "OO" as the obsessive niche and often wrongly defined practice in our community as much as it does convenience, something ColdFusion is definitely good at. The fact is, I use interfaces so I don't have to remind developers what to do, I use static methods so I don't have to instantiate objects or store service objects in a global cache, not because I am a part of a small "OO" core of developers. These are very powerful and simple concepts that even beginning developers from their first CFC have the ability to understand. I think the flaw in OO is that many are over-educated to the point that they elevate it to an endless science rather than common sense.

Oh and you know what? Interfaces and static methods have absolutely nothing to do with Java. Their definition is way outside the realm of a Java-only feature. I am trying to make CF the most well-rounded, powerful, feature-rich language it can be, not like any other language. I am not going to define it as a presentation layer, because the reality as I have seen it is that most of us reach back into Java for little or none of our back-end. I know Java and use Java, but I work with the best tool for the job, given the tools available to me and for web development, that is CF (not just for the presentation layer). Because CF has a lot of presentation tools, doesn't mean we should focus all or even most of our attention on those things at any one time, ignoring performance, interactivity, and damn well-tested practices, but make them better.

I would be glad to elaborate more on this if anyone has any questions because I feel it is horribly under-discussed beyond an "I want or don't want interfaces" level.

 

What Makes ColdFusion?

Flash Forms, PDF Generation, etc. are features that are unmatched in any other web development tool out there, but they do not define ColdFusion. Anyone who uses ColdFusion for these features alone is not a loyal ColdFusion user or even remotely confident in the language because the moment a tool is better at one of those for a week, ColdFusion would theoretically lose all of its purpose.

ColdFusion is a combination of all of our wishlists.

It is the syntax: I love that tag-based syntax even at a programmatic level, much less a UI level for its ease of reading and self-documenting capability. This is saying a lot for someone with a C, C++, Java education in CSCI.

It is the simplicity: ColdFusion offers us easy file manipulation for many tasks, a relaxation of types (note I did not say dynamic typing) and much more. All of our code constructs say what they mean and do not require us to worry about the janitorial tasks of programming like loop indexes, etc. We expect these capabilities in all languages, but no language makes them as simple as CF

It is the integration: Those features mentioned at the beginning of this section fit here. How proud were you when you used your first cfchart tag? Sweet, wasn't it? These are the great features that are often mistaken as THE reason people use CF in my opinion, but they are indeed great. We have to remember that these are the features that "package" CF. They make it very attractive and incredibly useful, but without the core functionality that say, CFCs offer, my bet is that not a single developer I know would use it.

Lastly, it is the organization: By "organization" I don't mean Adobe, Macromedia, New Atlanta, or Allaire, but the community as a whole. The willingness we have to expand this language in all directions by leaving it open enough to create many different servers and projects, but tightly knitted enough to keep good naming conventions and a solid transition space between products. The willingness we have to compare it to all of the other tools out there without becoming alienated. Integrate their capabilities and learn from them to make an even better tool for ourselves.

Well, I intended to get through many of the arguments and mis-interpretations I have seen in the community lately, but I think it is better that this post is more unifying and encouraging to all of us, not just those who agree with interfaces, etc. To use the wise words of Gary Funk, "Google before you jump to your death" when you think you are decided on an issue that you may have thought plain and simple, no matter what your experience level.

Anyway, please understand that I speak from my point of view, but this pep-talk is as much for me as anyone else.