12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not as good as the hype suggests, February 11, 2002
This review is from: ColdFusion 5 Web Application Construction Kit (4th Edition) (Paperback)
I own both the third edition (covering CF 4.0) and this one, and there are major difference between the two, not to this edition's advantage.
I thought the previous edition was a lesson in clarity, and it was concise, still containing most of the things one needed to know to be reasonable proficient in CFML.
This book, however, is quite bloated, and more importantly, lacks the clarity of its predecessor. But, bloated as it is, it omits, or keeps unreasonable short, several vital explanations. I mean, there are more explanations, for instance, about locking in the Study guide than in this book! The same goes for CFSCRIPT, etc, etc. Granted, there are two books by Forta et al, but you may find that the price tag is little too hefty...
Sorely lacking are the tags and Functions reference section that was SOOOOO useful in the previous volume. You now have to buy the Reference guide. Etc, etc...
This is a disappointing book, because the third edition had me set my hopes high for the follow-up.
You should really, really favor the O'Reilly book, it's extremely straightforward, clear, and contains everything of importance, INCLUDING the tags and Functions reference.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This book could teach a Monkey, August 20, 2001
This review is from: ColdFusion 5 Web Application Construction Kit (4th Edition) (Paperback)
I've been using ColdFusion for years, and this book (starting with the earlier versions) has always been an indispensable part of my library. The first seven chapters are essential to train beginners, and the complete reference section at the end keeps me picking it up at least once a week. While you won't be using the whole book forever, the completeness of this book will cover you in any situation. Some people that I've trained even say that the book makes for good reading; while it is less bland than most reference books, I wouldn't say that. If you expect to use CF on a regular basis, you need this book or something like it. Add the Advanced version once you're familiar with CF. Unless there's something wrong with you, you can train yourself in CF with this book. If you have previous programming experience, you'll breeze it.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Highly recommended for beginning/intermediate users, August 10, 2001
This review is from: ColdFusion 5 Web Application Construction Kit (4th Edition) (Paperback)
Ben Forta's The ColdFusion 5.0 Web Application Construction Kit is now in a fully updated and expanded fourth edition covering all the new features and options in ColdFusion 5 -- the next major upgrade for this popular software. Forta presents and teaches all the basics required to be able to create complete and professional applications, including: create real-time, secure, scalable, web based applications, use the new ColdFusion Studio development tools, including the WYSIWYG editor and the interactive SQL query builder, develop Intranet applications to interact with existing corporate databases, create secure e-commerce sites, use the new debugging tools and features, generate business graphics using the new graphing engine, implement security and access control, create reusable components, and build complete applications from the ground up. Highly recommended for beginning/intermediate users.
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