ColdFusion and the Rise
of Right-Brained Thinking By Hal Helms  Recently, I've been
reading a book
recommended to me by my
friend, Clark Valberg.
The book is A Whole New
Mind; its author is
Daniel Pink. In this
article, I'll discuss why
I think the premise of
the book holds such
promise for ColdFusion
programmers - and how it ... Jan. 3, 2007 09:30 PM Reads: 9,706 Replies: 1 |
A New Vision for
ColdFusion By Hal Helms  During a recent
conversation between Mike
Britton, Brian Kotek, and
myself, we were
discussing the features
that we'd like to see in
ColdFusion 8. (A podcast
of this discussion can be
found at
helmsandpeters.com.) I'd
like to share with you
some thoughts on the
... Sep. 2, 2006 11:00 AM Reads: 13,574 |
Security Matters By Hal Helms  It seems that not a week
goes by without another
story of a major
organization
inadvertently leaking
private data. In one
recent week,
representatives of a
Rhode Island government
agency reported that tens
of thousands of credit
card transactions on a
government... Aug. 8, 2006 12:00 PM Reads: 9,603 |
Creating Object-Oriented
Presentation Layers By Hal Helms  For the past several
weeks, I've been immersed
in writing a large
application - so
immersed, in fact, that I
missed writing my column
for last month! This
application has been
particularly interesting
to me because it makes
such extensive use of
AJAX - that combin... Jun. 28, 2006 04:30 AM Reads: 12,897 Replies: 1 |
Mixins By Hal Helms  In the last two
installments of
'Foundations,' we looked
at the issue of static v
dynamic typing in
ColdFusion and I argued
that treating ColdFusion
as a statically typed
language led to
disappointment and
defeat. In this issue
let's explore some of the
possibil... Mar. 11, 2006 02:00 PM Reads: 15,985 |
ColdFusion Developer's
Journal Special
"Frameworks" Focus Issue:
Mach-II By Hal Helms; Ben Edwards; Matthew Woodward  It's all Simon's fault.
We say this to all
framework writers who,
even now, are trying to
recover from the task
assigned them by CFDJ's
editor-in-chief: provide
an article and an
implementation of the
Macromedia Pet Market
application in their
chosen framework. Jan. 31, 2006 05:45 PM Reads: 23,107 |
Toward a New Orthodoxy
– Dynamic Typing By Hal Helms  Last month, we took a
long look at strong
typing. We saw that while
strong typing offers many
benefits in a language
such as Java, trying to
attach strong typing to
ColdFusion produces
really difficult
problems. And last month,
due to my 'in'
connections, we were ... Jan. 28, 2006 11:15 AM Reads: 12,387 Replies: 1 |
Why Should ColdFusion Be
Statically Typed? By Hal Helms  In this article, I argue
that by adopting the
static typing model found
in languages such as
Java, we have been
seduced into accepting a
bad model - or at least a
model that is
inappropriate for the
dynamic typing mechanism
inherent in ColdFusion.
I'll explain the... Jan. 21, 2006 12:30 PM Reads: 19,924 |
Arrays and Structures:
Problem Solving By Hal Helms  In the first etude, we
looked at arrays; in the
second, we worked with
structures. In this
etude, let's work through
some exercises that may
use one or the other or
both. Ready to dig in? Oct. 26, 2005 06:45 AM Reads: 12,486 Replies: 1 |
Études: Studies in
Structures By Hal Helms  The life of a writer is
sometimes a lonely one.
After writing something,
you send it out and
aren't sure how it will
be received. Last month
was a happy change: I
received a lot of
feedback from my column
introducing the idea of
études. In the
introduction to the ... Aug. 9, 2005 05:00 PM Reads: 15,425 |
We Programmers Need
Etudes By Hal Helms  Have you ever noticed the
correlation between
musicians and
programmers? Some of the
best programmers I know
are or have been
musicians. I recently had
a class where 70% of the
students were active
musicians - some even
with CDs of their work. Jun. 16, 2005 03:00 PM Reads: 12,959 Replies: 1 |
Rethinking Decorators By Hal Helms; Ben Edwards  Ben and I were talking
about my earlier CFDJ
article on the Decorator
design pattern [cfdj,
vol. 6 issue 11]. In the
article, I explained how
the Decorator pattern
could be used in
situations in which there
exists a base class with
various options. Jun. 16, 2005 02:00 PM Reads: 16,629 |
Creating Configuration
Files By Hal Helms In their book Head First
Design Patterns, the four
coauthors lay out a
series of key principles
for creating robust
software designs. One of
the most important of
these principles is 'Find
what varies and
encapsulate it.' In this
article, let's apply this
principl... Apr. 13, 2005 12:00 AM Reads: 14,820 |
Abstractions By Hal Helms I've been busy lately
providing training in
implementing object
orientation (OO) with
ColdFusion components
(CFCs) to several
companies. I've found
that most ColdFusion
developers approach OO as
something to 'layer on'
over their traditional
programming practices.... Feb. 11, 2005 12:00 AM Reads: 13,337 |
Designer Coffee and the
Decorator Pattern By Hal Helms While standing in line at
my local coffee shop the
other day, I was thinking
about how helpful a
thorough knowledge of
design patterns is for a
developer. In case you're
unclear about what design
patterns are, think of
them as time-tested
solutions to very
specific problems. Dec. 14, 2004 12:00 AM Reads: 18,809 Replies: 1 |
Saving Polly By Hal Helms My heart beat faster as
the mail carrier handed
me the mail. There it
was: my latest edition of
Thrilling Tech Tales
magazine. As I always do,
I immediately turned to
the exact center of the
magazine to read the
latest installment of
'The Adventures of the
Morphic... Nov. 24, 2004 12:00 AM Reads: 12,775 |
Extreme Programming By Hal Helms The Agile Manifesto is
the product of 17 smart,
well-meaning developers
who met in February 2001
to discuss problems in
software development. The
list of developers
included Kent Beck,
Alistair Cockburn, Martin
Fowler, Ron Jeffries,
Robert 'Uncle Bob'
Martin, and ... Oct. 20, 2004 12:00 AM Reads: 17,210 Replies: 5 |
'Selling' ColdFusion By Hal Helms 'I'm getting a lot of
resistance,' my client
told me. 'Prospective
clients love the
functionality of our
application, but they shy
away when they hear that
it's developed in
ColdFusion. Their IT
people don't like it and
we're starting to lose
sales.' Sep. 15, 2004 12:00 AM Reads: 12,555 |
Fusebox or Mach-II? By Hal Helms For more than seven
years, Fusebox
(www.fusebox.org), now in
its fourth version, has
been the dominant
framework for building
ColdFusion applications.
During that time, Fusebox
has evolved from a set of
best practices into a
mature framework capable
of tackling ve... Aug. 13, 2004 12:00 AM Reads: 18,883 Replies: 1 |
An OO Approach to War By Hal Helms With the advent of
ColdFusion components
(CFCs), introduced in
ColdFusion MX version 6.0
and greatly improved in
version 6.1, ColdFusion
MX allows CF programmers
to enter the mainstream
of object-oriented (OO)
programming. With the
overwhelming success of
the J2EE... Jul. 20, 2004 12:00 AM Reads: 18,322 |
A Wedding Invitation: CF
& Java By Hal Helms If you missed this year's
CFUN conference (June
26-27), you missed a lot.
In addition to the great
time spent meeting and
talking with other
ColdFusion programmers,
Ben Forta gave a keynote
demo of the next version
of ColdFusion, code-named
'Blackstone'. Jul. 14, 2004 12:00 AM Reads: 20,899 Replies: 3 |
Seven Strategies for
Surviving Outsourcing By Hal Helms One of the most enduring
of American legends is
that of John Henry, the
'steel drivin' man,' who
pitted his strength
against a machine - and
won. Unlike many legends,
John Henry was a real
person - a former slave
who was hired by the C&O
Railroad to cut holes in
r... Jun. 22, 2004 12:00 AM Reads: 23,227 Replies: 2 |
Adventures in
Encapsulation Part IV By Hal Helms I was playing a
particularly tough game
of online Texas Hold'em
with someone who called
himself 'all_or_nothing'.
I looked at my two hole
cards: a 10 of spades and
a 10 of clubs. It was
down to just the two of
us, vying for the total
prize money of $5.00. May. 11, 2004 12:00 AM Reads: 13,405 |
Adventures in
Encapsulation Part III By Hal Helms I recently gave a class
in Fusebox 4 during which
the issue of security
came up. This issue seems
to cause a good deal of
trouble for programmers -
so much so that when we
wrote Fusebox 4 we
provided some built-in
abilities to help
programmers with this. Apr. 13, 2004 12:00 AM Reads: 14,465 |
Adventures in
Encapsulation Part 2 By Hal Helms It's past midnight and
I'm in my car, prowling
Atlanta for a good cup of
coffee. (Such are the
challenges of members of
the Cult of the Midnight
Programmer.) My cell
phone rings. Mar. 9, 2004 12:00 AM Reads: 12,094 Replies: 1 |
Adventures in
Encapsulation Part I By Hal Helms I've just returned from a
four-day class on Mach-II
(www.mach-ii.com) that
Ben Edwards and I gave to
a group of developers at
Macromedia in San
Francisco. It was great
fun to be working with so
skilled a group. Feb. 25, 2004 12:00 AM Reads: 12,143 |
Is ColdFusion Dying?--Why
has Macromedia made a big
deal of the fact that
CFMX is built on Java,
asks software development
guru By Hal Helms When they hear that I run
a class entitled 'Java
for ColdFusion
Programmers,' many
developers ask me: 'Why
the class in Java? Is
ColdFusion dying?' It's
a fair question. After
all, technology in
general and languages in
particular have a
lifespan. It's also true ... Jan. 30, 2004 07:27 AM Reads: 9,683 Replies: 8 |
The Benefits of
Well-Written Software By Hal Helms Mae West, the indomitable
actress/comedienne of the
1930s and '40s, left us
with some unforgettable
quotes. She gave us such
lines as, 'When caught
between two evils, I
generally pick the one
I've never tried before,'
and 'Too much of a good
thing...can be
wonderf... Jan. 13, 2004 12:00 AM Reads: 11,828 Replies: 1 |
FLiPping the Software
Development Process By Hal Helms In the past, I've written
in broad terms about
FLiP, the Fusebox
Lifecycle Process, a
methodology for
delivering successful
software projects that
work (despite its name)
with any - or no -
software framework. In
this article, I want to
'drill down' on one
aspec... Dec. 9, 2003 12:00 AM Reads: 12,945 |
Unnatural Acts By Hal Helms Ah, television! Where
else can you see so much
action? Murders are
routinely committed and
solved, dastardly plots
are hatched and foiled,
and characters learn some
deep life-truth - all
within a single hour. Nov. 11, 2003 11:09 AM Reads: 14,012 |
Build a Simple Mach-II
Application By Hal Helms In the August edition of
CFDJ, Ben Edwards and I
presented a first look at
Mach-II, a new,
object-oriented framework
for building software
applications. In this
issue, I offer a tutorial
(with commentary) on
building a simple Mach-II
application. Oct. 15, 2003 12:00 AM Reads: 14,786 |
So You Think You Know
ColdFusion? By Hal Helms O.K., but before you hang
out your shingle, you
might want to take this
little test of your
ColdFusion powers. So
slip into the phone
booth, put on your CF
costume and away we go. .
. Sep. 23, 2003 12:00 AM Reads: 6,202 Replies: 1 |
Pull, Don't Push, Your
Tables into Excel By Hal Helms Spend a little time on
the ColdFusion Support
Forum and you'll soon
encounter frustrated
ColdFusion developers
trying to extract data
into an Excel spreadsheet
format. Sep. 23, 2003 12:00 AM Reads: 8,097 Replies: 2 |
Programming an
Interactive Help Desk By Hal Helms The great Victorian
novelist, Charles
Dickens, wrote of the
time period of the French
Revolution: 'It was the
best of times. It was the
worst of times.' Sep. 23, 2003 12:00 AM Reads: 6,619 |
Fusebox and the Quest for
the Holy Grail By Hal Helms Everybody wants
reusability, but nobody
does it well, it seems.
And that's frustrating.
We know as coders that we
end up writing software
that's virtually
identical over and over
again. Sep. 18, 2003 12:00 AM Reads: 5,968 |
Fusebox Perspectives: By Hal Helms Why is Fusebox important?
To help answer that
question, let's explore
the similarities between
the state of software
development in 2000 and
the state of rifle making
exactly two centuries ago
in 1800. Sep. 18, 2003 12:00 AM Reads: 5,893 |
Using Wireframes By Hal Helms Everyone who has ever
developed an application
is all too familiar with
the problem of clients'
shifting notions of what
they want and need in an
application. I sometimes
think the process of
building a web
application is much like
building a house. Sep. 18, 2003 12:00 AM Reads: 6,709 |
Don't Sell the Site, Sell
the Quizzle By Hal Helms One of the great things
about developing for the
Web is the fun factor.
While our grimmer, more
serious IT cousins are
exiled in lands populated
by such dread monsters as
COBOL and FORTRAN, and
must do daily battle with
the demon, MainFrame, our
lot is far more pleasant. Sep. 18, 2003 12:00 AM Reads: 6,368 |
Answers to "So You Think
You Know ColdFusion?" By Hal Helms The answer is...C. And
did you know that
ColdFusion processes
application.cfm when an
application page in the
root directory or any of
its sub-directories is
requested? Sep. 17, 2003 12:00 AM Reads: 5,573 |
Fusebox 4 By Hal Helms The latest version of
Fusebox - version 4 - has
been taken out of beta
and placed into general
availability. Over the
last seven years,
Fusebox has grown from a
collection of best
practices and snippets
of code into a
full-featured, robust
framework on which
... Sep. 11, 2003 12:00 AM Reads: 12,107 |
About Newsfeeds / Video Feeds
Hal Helms is a well-known speaker/writer/strategist on software development issues. His monthly column in CFDJ contains his Musings on Software Development and he has written and contributed to several books. Hal holds training sessions on Java, ColdFusion, and software development processes. He authors a popular monthly newsletter series. For more information, contact him at hal@halhelms.com or see his website, www.halhelms.com.