Customer Reviews

ColdFusion 8 Developer Tutorial

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I really enjoyed reading most of this book. I say most, because I haven't gotten through it all - there's a lot of content here!

I was surprised by the range of material covered in one book. The CFC's section is excellent, AJAX, and such.

It looks like John Farrar spent quite a bit of time developing his content, and he delivers it in an easy-to-read fashion.

Thanks for a great ColdFusion book!

You know, I read books on ColdFusion all the time (I fly a lot) to stay up to par with things, but mostly to get different perspectives on how people see and use ColdFusion in their own lives. We all have our own perspective and uses; and I like to see how others use it and/or teach it.. (the teach it part intrigues me, because I teach it too.. so i do my best to learn from others and see what works and what doesn't so I can do it better myself).

Recently, I got my hands on a copy of John Farrar's [ColdFusion 8 Developer Tutorial] and I have to say.. I think it's clearly written...it covers a broad range of subjects, but I think what I like the most is that it goes above and beyond most books. He clearly focuses on the readers and does everything possible to get you to get it... (if that makes sense).

I am not one to recommend books, I think tutorials and "demonstrations" work better when it comes to learning things, but I think that this book can teach people quite a bit and really get them to understand and master the coding logic that is needed to become a good developer.

If you have yet to read this book, I suggest you pick up a copy.. It's not only worth the cash.. but will also be a good reference later on.. Lots of Ajax in there too.. which I haven't seen in many other books (other than WACK... but that is another story!).

Overall, I would give this book a 4.5 (out of 5 stars) because it delivers a good range of topics, clear communication, and most importantly it helps with next steps!

Great Job John!
Keep them coming!

The author has a very clumsy writing style: indeed, it is difficult to believe that he is a native speaker of English. Even simple concepts are explained so badly that they are difficult to understand:

"You can nest structures inside the structures in addition to actual variable storage containers. It is the first step towards packaging your data inside the application."

He is trying to say that structures can contain other structures, and that this can help to organize data.

Here's another gem:

"Most of the failed web pages come when we start getting interactive."

He is explaining that people sometimes make mistakes when they program in ColdFusion.

Despite all this verbiage, when there is a need to explain something properly, he doesn't bother. For example, it is important to know when to use # in CF. His explanation is:

"This is required for functions to work properly."

Since # is not usually used inside functions - and the example he gives is actually a tag rather than a function - the reader isn't any the wiser.

Here's more:

"Computers see upper case letters differently from lower case letters. So THIS proved the point that strings are case sensitive."

[In English] The function find() searches for sub-strings and is case sensitive.

Note that he doesn't explain what the function find() actually does: indeed, at this point in the book (p.14) he hasn't even introduced functions.

I seriously doubt that anyone could learn anything useful from this book: it's truly dreadful. Even the cover picture makes no sense (cold fusion - i.e., fusion at low temperatures - is supposed to take place at room temperature. It doesn't need ice.) Buy Ben Forta's books, which are more coherent, more accurate and much better written. Or use the manuals which are free to download from Adobe.com.


Packt is a publisher to be avoided. I have read another one of their books - Object Oriented JavaScript - and that also had obviously not been properly proof-read.

The book has been needed for some time. What I liked best
was that the book did not get too technical. The reader can follow
along. I was a developer that stayed at one level for very long..
and most books were a gigantic leap into so much technical jargon
that I was lost. This book is the next step if you are a cold fusion
developer that knows some of the basics or a developer new to Cold Fusion who catches on very quickly. Thank you!

First off, I think some of these reviews were very unfair to this author. Look at the bad reviewers history, they just love to complain. Being an author of ColdFusion books myself I think this book had some really good ideas and some tips I found very useful as a developer. These bad reviewers were most likely people that never had the opportunity to write or can't write to they use this as their outlet.

John's book is a good place to start if you are new to ColdFusion. Personally I have been writing ColdFusion for years, so I was reading this book from a review perspective, but it seems like it would be great for beginners. He starts with the very basics, like creating and using variables, and works up to more advanced topics like Ajax. I did find a couple of editing errors, but nothing too serious.

As far as tech manuals go, this book is the worst I have ever come across. The writer makes statements like this on page 43:

"First, view Appendix A to set up your database and then set up your environment for this section. If you are not skilled with databases, then we have suggestions in Appendix B...."

Appendix A is a listing of websites for IDEs, Database Engines, Audio Software, and so on. It does not tell you how to set one up or even what one to use. Appendix B is worse! It is a listing of blog sites, conferences, general ColdFusion sites and so on. The point the author is trying to make is skip this book there is better information for free on the internet.

It gets worse. The code snippets that you are supposed to follow along with are so error riddled you will spend 5x the time just trying to find out what went wrong. Lines of code are duplicated and tags are missing openings or closings. The only saving grace (if you can call it that) is the code you download from the website is actually correct. Translation, it does not match what is written in the book.

The errors extend into the instruction aspect of the book to with such gems as: "Add the following highlighted lines to the .cfc and .cfc pages:" .cfc and .cfc huh?

The Errata web page lists NO Errors! Amazing, I thought someone would have submitted something. Good news is I get to be the first. I sent them an email over a week ago, still nothing on the site. No point sending them anymore since 1) they are not posting them, and 2) I am not paid to be their editor.

Clarity of writing is vitally important in any sort of technical / instructional book. The material Farrar covers is fairly extensive, but the actual writing is atrocious. An example from the beginning of Chapter 2:

"This object will be a reflection of the common attributes and methods that we will use to model a product (object). Our product (object) has attributes and methods. Let us work through this whole chapter again before you form an opinion of CFCs in code."

Another example from a few pages earlier:

"Earlier, we forgot about the Boolean variable type. The conditional statements inside the 'if' statements evaluate to either true or false. These are the Boolean values. You will also find that you can use either a zero, or a non-zero number to represent a Boolean logical evaluation. Therefore, any expression that evaluates to either zero or false has the same results. The other non-zero numbers and values such as true, yes, and no are valid Boolean conditions. You can just take the same code and assign it to a variable. Then you could use the variable inside the 'if' statement instead of evaluating the logic inside the statement. Normally, place it inside the <cfIf> statement, which is more meaningful."

This is Sarah Palin level nonsense, three times longer than it needs to be, unnecessarily confusing, and neither concise nor clear. It sounds almost computer-generated. It's certainly not acceptable for a professional book at this price point.