Help for a complete beginner!

Report · Sep 16, 2012

Hello,

I want to apologize in advance for how little I know on this topic, and about programming together. I am not asking for myself, but to give some advice to a young family member of mine. He works with a company that uses a ColdFusion website, and we were speaking the other day about how the company is looking to eventually hire a new ColdFusion programmer.

Here is the problem for my nephew: he doesn't have any programming experience. He is very computer savvy for a young guy, and he is very interested in going after this, but he told me he doesn't know where to begin. I took the obvious course and said "aren't there such things as ColdFusion classes?" but he seems to think it is not so simple as that - like you can't just jump in as a total beginner into working with ColdFusion?

So I thought I would do a little research. If you were just starting out, and were looking to eventually develop and program a coldfusion website, how would you start? What steps would you take (the more detailed the better)? Someone told me "he should start out by learning HTML", but if you could even break that down more - how would you go about learning HTML? If you have any more questions for me about my nephew, i'd be happy to answer them.

Thanks!

Report · Sep 16, 2012

Learning HTML would be a good start in contextualising how web pages work, and therefore what ColdFusion code will be needing to do.

FInding HTML tutorials is easy: just google "introduction to HTML" or "HTML tutorial" or something. If you prefer printed books, there'll be a bunch of those available too (search Amazon). I do not know which books are considered good or bad in this context, but the user comments and votes should be a good indication.

As for learning ColdFusion, just leaping into a course might not be the best bet for your newphew. Way back when I did the ColdFusion Fasttrack course without ever having used (or seen) CFML before, and found it easy, but I did have a background of doing the odd bit of programming, so I was at least familiar with basic principles. If he doesn't have any pre-existing programming knowledge, it might not be the best way to start.

The only printed CF book of note (that I'm aware of) is the CFWACK. I've not looked at one for years, and cannot remember whether it's intended as a learning tool, or just as a reference. Someone else can perhaps comment on that.

There are a bunch of matches for "coldfusion tutorials" on Google, of varying age and quality: they're probably worth looking at though.

If I was learning a new language, I'd just use online tutorials. If I was going to be learning programming, though, I'd go do a general programming course (like at the local polytech or college or whatever) first. The principles behind programming are more important than the language, IMO.

Of course if he dives into CF and has questions to ask, he can always ask them here.

--

Adam

Report · Sep 16, 2012

As Adam implied, the best way to learn to be a computer progammer is to go to a school that teaches it. However, if thats not in the cards and your nephew is really bright, my suggestions are:

The most important skill is database design. A well designed database makes so many things much easier than they could be. On these lines, I've heard good things about the book, Database Design for Mere Mortals.

Next, structured query language, aka sql. I've heard equally good things about the book, Teach Yourself SQL in 10 Minutes.

Adam has already told you about html tutorials. Equally important is javascript. I learned it by buying the book, Teach Yourself Javascript in 24 Hours.

Learning ColdFusion? Like Adam I was already a programmer when I was introduced to CF. For me, ColdFusion was reasonably easy to learn, but I was already a programmer. Adam mentioned the the Cold Fusion Web Application Construction Kit (CFWACK). I've seen it and it looks ok. Also look at O'Reilly publishing. We have one of their CF books kicking around and it's also good.

Good luck.