Posted At : July 2, 2008 11:33 AM | Posted By : Dave
Related Categories: ColdFusion 8

I was reading a post on the cftalk list about interesting timing numbers via cf script and cfset. Read it here.

The post referenced a blog entry from Neil Middleton that published the timing numbers for doing some set statements via cf7, cf8, and bd.net. I noticed when reading the blog that the numbers posted were based on cf8 beta and not the release version. So, I decided to redo the tests posted and see how they differ from the post. Here is what I found...

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Posted At : May 27, 2008 12:16 PM | Posted By : Dave
Related Categories: Dreamweaver CS4 Beta,Dreamweaver

As you may or may not know Dreamweaver CS4 Beta is out at labs.adobe.com. I took it for a short test run a little while ago and here are my first impressions (for what they are worth).

Overall Look: The look of the app has changed drastically. The standard windows title bar is gone. All of the tabs have a very boxy feel to them. I am not a mac guy but the interface seems very macish. The gutter bar next to an open file is a little dark and hard to recognize what options are available.

New Features: One of the coolest new features to me is the Code Explorer. This allows you to navigate to included code without using the flies panel to open them. I can see this working great for standard non-dynamic include sites. However, if you use a dynamic path to your include or do not store your code below the web root it does not work. It will also not follow an extends or a createobject to a cfc. Maybe I am missing something but I also do not see a way to turn this feature off.

Another new feature is the split code view. You can now open a file and have 2 scrolling windows that scroll the same file. This is very handy when working with large files.

Overall it is a nice product. However, I still feel if fails in comparison to code editors like CFEclipse. It still feels to design centric and not like a true coding IDE.

So, go download it and form your own opinion.

Till next time,

--Dave

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Posted At : May 15, 2008 7:36 PM | Posted By : Dave
Related Categories: ColdFusion 8,General

While working on a new application I ran into an interesting issue. The solution to the issue was complex, and I was not pleased with the result. The solution was far from elegant or streamlined. The code was totally bloated, but for necessary reasons. I reworked the code a few times and made it more compact but the end result was still not pleasing.

I bet you are saying, "If it works leave it alone" or something like that. If so I would tend to agree. However, I am one of those people that would spend an hour coding to squeeze out 500ms of processing. I am very critical of what I write and do my very best to make performance paramount.

After leaving the code sit for a few days I want back to it with a clear head. I then started poking around the net looking for ideas. I then started playing around using underlying java objects to make the code better. I then found some undocumented functions in CF that made the code even better.

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