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h_c1
Known Participant
August 28, 2010
Answered

suggestions for coldfusion books for a newbie

  • August 28, 2010
  • 3 replies
  • 1447 views

Can someone please suggest some good references on ColdFusion for  a person who is from a C/C++ development background? I am not  doing any work in Flash(only Flex) at present.

My library has the below books

ColdFusion_MX_Bible 2003 edition

ColdFusion 9 Web Application Construction Kit Volume 1 May.2010

Programming ColdFusion MX 2nd ed (O'Reilly, 2003)

Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 with ASP ColdFusion and PHP Training from the Source

Hack Proofing ColdFusion

Foundation Flex for Developers - Data-Driven Applications with PHP, ASP.NET, ColdFusion, and LCDS

Or, is there any other book I should also read for which I need to put a request to my library.

I  realize all of them are useful, but if I have time to read only one  which one should I choose which would make me familiar with most of the  language nuances.  Would the ColdFusion Bible 2003 edition cover most parts? I recognize the the most current  reference would be the Adobe docs.

I know to learn a language there are beginner books,  intermediate, advanced, reference and required(like for C it is the  book by Kernighan and Ritchie and for C++ it is Stroustrup) books.

This is so that I  can read all the required books when I get a chance.

A quick Google search offers some hints http://www.forta.com/books/coldfusion/ and http://www.bigwebmaster.com/ColdFusion/Books/ as well as http://www.amazon.com/ColdFusion-Books-for-Beginners/lm/355FVU99NWLV8

But,  any suggestions/advice from this group would be appreciated.

Thanks

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Adam Cameron.

I haven't opened one since the CFMX7 edition, but I think the CFWACK books by Forta et al are considered the best of breed of CF printed books.

That said, I always got more from the online docs than those books.  But I'd always rather work things out for myself than to be guided by someone else as to how they'd approach a task.

Another consideration is that I don't think CF has the range of complexity that C++ has, so I don't think there is a need for "basic", "intermediate" and "advanced" books for CF.  The various volumes of the CFWACK aren't really an increment in complexity, but just starting more with the absolutely necessary building blocks, moving into the less required and then more esoteric bits of functionality.  But I don't think those divisions are really made on the basis of complexity.

And as with any other language, it's good to keep an eye on the community and what people are doing.  I have learned an awful lot simply by trying to answer people's questions here, for argument's sake; but there are a lot of CF bloggers out there who publish an awful lot of interesting material.

--

Adam

3 replies

A
Anonymous
September 2, 2010

Hi, I read a lot books, blogs, post at Adobe Dev website.

But I found one fun way to begin: Lynda.com http://tinyurl.com/3yl6xqt

Try it are some free videos.

Good luck

H
h_c1Author
Known Participant
September 2, 2010

Hi, Thanks for the links and advice. They are useful.

A
Adam Cameron.Correct answer
Inspiring
August 28, 2010

I haven't opened one since the CFMX7 edition, but I think the CFWACK books by Forta et al are considered the best of breed of CF printed books.

That said, I always got more from the online docs than those books.  But I'd always rather work things out for myself than to be guided by someone else as to how they'd approach a task.

Another consideration is that I don't think CF has the range of complexity that C++ has, so I don't think there is a need for "basic", "intermediate" and "advanced" books for CF.  The various volumes of the CFWACK aren't really an increment in complexity, but just starting more with the absolutely necessary building blocks, moving into the less required and then more esoteric bits of functionality.  But I don't think those divisions are really made on the basis of complexity.

And as with any other language, it's good to keep an eye on the community and what people are doing.  I have learned an awful lot simply by trying to answer people's questions here, for argument's sake; but there are a lot of CF bloggers out there who publish an awful lot of interesting material.

--

Adam

H
h_c1Author
Known Participant
August 28, 2010

Adam Cameron. wrote:

I haven't opened one since the CFMX7 edition, but I think the CFWACK books by Forta et al are considered the best of breed of CF printed books.

That said, I always got more from the online docs than those books.  But I'd always rather work things out for myself than to be guided by someone else as to how they'd approach a task.

Another consideration is that I don't think CF has the range of complexity that C++ has, so I don't think there is a need for "basic", "intermediate" and "advanced" books for CF.  The various volumes of the CFWACK aren't really an increment in complexity, but just starting more with the absolutely necessary building blocks, moving into the less required and then more esoteric bits of functionality.  But I don't think those divisions are really made on the basis of complexity.

And as with any other language, it's good to keep an eye on the community and what people are doing.  I have learned an awful lot simply by trying to answer people's questions here, for argument's sake; but there are a lot of CF bloggers out there who publish an awful lot of interesting material.

--

Adam

Thanks for the very useful advice. I appreciate it.

Why do you think CF does not have the range of complexity of C++?  Is it because of features like template metaprogramming or reflection in C++ which can be a bit complex?

A
Adam Cameron.
Inspiring
August 29, 2010

Why do you think CF does not have the range of complexity of C++?  Is it because of features like template metaprogramming or reflection in C++ which can be a bit complex?

Oooh... I've not touched C++ for... 17yrs... so I'm quite rusty (that's understating it somewhat).  Well CF's mostly typeless, so that immediately removes a lot of complexity from the mix.  Nor does it have pointers, nor explicitly does it have references.  And its implemention of OO lacks stuff like method & operator overloading, or multiple inheritance.  There's also no concept of static methods.  Templates weren't around when I did C++, so I don't know much about them other than what I'm reading on Wikipedia now, but sure... it's a complexity CF doesn't have.  I can't remember whether C++ has all that malloc nonsense that C has, but... again... complexity that CF doesn't have.

I don't mean this as an indictment or recommendation for either language.  Just an observation.

--

Adam

D
Dan_Bracuk
Inspiring
August 28, 2010

If you have to pick just one, pick this one:  ColdFusion 9 Web Application Construction Kit Volume 1 May.2010

H
h_c1Author
Known Participant
August 28, 2010

Dan Bracuk wrote:

If you have to pick just one, pick this one:  ColdFusion 9 Web Application Construction Kit Volume 1 May.2010

Thanks for the suggestion. I appreciate your advice.

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