-Kevin
----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter Tilbrook" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "CF-Talk" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2003 1:38 AM
Subject: Training ColdFusion "newbies"
> Hey there fellow developers!
>
> I've just completed a three day "crash course" for training total
ColdFusion
> newbies in the art of what we all know and love - CFML. Squeezing in eight
> years of CF experience in three days, making it interesting, making it
fun,
> is quite tough.
>
> The two 'victims' were Centrelink (www.centrelink.gov.au) employees
(26,000
> employees Australia wide - pretty big) who had no web application
> development experience - at all - but at least knew about HTML (thank you
> lord). They were more the Visual Basic types - but very smart.
>
> 1. Pretty much on day one I walked them through what ColdFusion is, where
it
> came from, the long path travelled, where it is headed, why the hell am I
> still using it, etc. They will be stuck on CF5 for a while so it was hard
> not to spurt the virtues of just how good MM made CF with RedSky.
>
> 2. Day two was probably more boring as there was a less "hands-on"
approach
> as I tried to explain key issues like application security, code
> optimisation, coding practices, FuseBox (example) as a framework, state
> management, etc. Now these guys never really had to worry about "state
> management" so it was a challenge. The discussion of "race conditions" was
> interesting to say the least.
>
> I was hoarse by the end of the day at any rate.
>
> 3. Day three I decided to make it more interesting by declaring "I will
not
> write a single line of code". You will - but I will sit by your right and
> explaing what to write, why you are writing it, and how it works - and
brag
> about "yes CFML is easy to pick up given time".
>
> On this day my two "newbies" added to the application* I built on day
one -
> some cool features like creating a "register new user" which included
input
> validation (email address is valid etc), dynamically creating MSSQL 2000
> database tables, sending email in CF (easy peasy with MX) and building a
> search engine that highlights keywords of their search result anywhere in
> the search results. They even decided to change the "highlight" to BOLD
text
> with a yellow background.
>
> >>Whew!
>
> It was tough as I had never had to train anyone before. ColdFusion - being
> such an accessible language - made it easier. Thank god they are still on
> CF5 so I did not need to go into web services or ColdFusion Component -
but
> they were mentioned. UDF's however got a special mention as noone at
> Centrelink seems to have... Nope. I will not be critical.
>
> I really like CF and it was great to introduce another two into it's
> intoxicating world. With a few more tweaks (and more computers than my own
> which I had to drag in from home) I could be on a roll.
>
> I'd also like to mention that CF-Talk got a special mention (as did House
of
> Fusion itself), Ben Forta "What, did he write this book too?" (yep! he
sure
> did - here are a few (4.5+) I no longer need), Dave Watts - from FigLeaf -
> not Dr David Watts who will be appearing at MXDU 2004 (www.mxdu.com) and
> Charlie Arehart (New Atlanta) for Blue Dragon.
>
> Any tips for the next round of training in January would be appreciated!
>
> Merry Christmas!
>
> (basically a web application for storing and retrieving favorites or
> bookmarks long forgotten with full text search)
>
> Peter Tilbrook
> ColdFusion Applications Developer
> ColdGen Internet Solutions
> Manager, ACT and Region ColdFusion Users Group - http://www.actcfug.com
> 4/73 Tharwa Road
> Queanbeyan, NSW, 2620
> AUSTRALIA
>
> Telephone: +61-2-6284-2727
> Mobile: +61-0439-401-823
> E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>
>
>
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