Adam Churvis wrote: > Spike, > > Thanks for your input. I'd like to address your issues. > > >>There is quite a lot of configuration work up front to set up a project >> and ensure that Plum knows all about the ColdFusion, Web server and >>Database. > > > Any application will eventually need all this information. Plum just > collects it all up front.
Agreed, This isn't an issue. It was an observation since a lot of people didn't seem to know what it does or how it does it. > > >>Once you've got your project set up Plum uses these to allow >>you to perform configuration tasks without leaving the IDE and to >>generate code for task like CRUD operations on a single table, and >>searching, again on a single table. > > > Plum search forms can search on parent tables, too. > ok, I must have missed something there. Is there a strict limit to which tables can or can not be searched, or can you select 3 or 4 tables and tell the search form to search all of them. I don't think there's a huge use case for that particular example btw, it's more curiosity about how you can use Plum to build searches and forms. > >>The major downfall I can see is that there doesn't appear to be *any* >>way to actually edit the text of a file directly. You have to use an >>external text editor of some kind to to that. > > > This was intended from the beginning. Plum is a tool to add to your > toolbox, not replace your toolbox. To try and recreate HomeSite inside Plum > would not have been realistic for us. > Yep, I can appreciate that, but I still find it a little odd that there's nothing in there at all. > >>Also, once you start modifying the generated code you can't easily merge >>your modified code with code that Plum generates in the future. You can >>either choose to overwrite an existing file or leave it alone. I guess >>that means that PLUM is designed primarily for generating stub code that >>you then modify and don't use Plum to manage in the future. > > > Once you've gone as far as you like in the Plum IDE for a page, you > right-click the page node and choose "Lock This Page", which prevents that > page from being overwritten by future generations. ok, that makes sense. > > Plum was never intended to be a round-tripping tool; it was intended to > generate all or most of the code you need for a page, then its job is done > and the rest (if anything) is up to the developer. > Thanks for clarifying that. > >>It's certainly a promising product and I can see why it would be useful >>to a lot of people, but there are a few areas where I think it's missing >>key features. Appologies to the developers if any of these are already >>in there. I looked but I couldn't find them. >> >>They are in no particular order: >> >>Integrated text based editor that supports the same sort of stuff CF >>developers have become used to - tag insight etc. >>Integrated SQL editor to support searching and other SQL operations on >>more than 1 table. >>Round-trip code management and merging. >>Customization of the CFML code generation to suit individual coding > > styles. > > We've never intended to include any of these features in Plum. That's not > the application space we're occupying. ok > > >>Support for frameworks other than the Plum framework. > > > The Plum IDE is tightly coupled to the Plum Framework, and wouldn't have any > utility with any other frameworks. The Plum IDE is not a traditional IDE, > but an IDE for Plum application development. > It sounds more like a project management and configuration tool than an IDE, but I've only looked at it briefly, so I really can't make any sort of solid assertions either way on that. It's just the feeling I got. > >>Support for a less page-centric application model. > > > Could you clarify this a bit? Yep, The in the app that got auto-generated when I created my project quite a lot of files were generated in the webroot. I tend to write apps that are structured more like a Mach-ii app. Quite a few CFC methods will be called on any given reqest and they will not necessarily be the same methods for every request. Some may require pre-processing to check for data validation; some may require a remote lookup of some kind; some may need to perform security checks of one kind or another; and some may need to do post-processing once data has been returned from a database. Each of those method calls is an integral part of the request for a given page, but they could each easily be added to any existing page. In other words, I tend to use an n-tier development approach and specify the functionality that should be called and in what order for any given page request. If I'm using Mach-ii that will be specified in the mach-ii.xml file. If I'm not, it will be specified somewhere in the controller layer (I tend to use an MVC approach whether I'm using mach-ii or not). I also tend to use quite a few "form generators" in some types of apps. That is, code that will generate forms and client side validation automatically for a given class of CFC. Right now there doesn't seem to be any way to do that sort of thing in Plum. All you can do is add view centric functionality (that's actually what I meant rather than page centric) like search forms and tell it which action page to post to. You can certainly add a lot of the stuff I mentioned above to the action page, but it would be much nicer if you could do more of it from the Plum itself. > > Spike, I really appreciate your feedback, and I hope you continue to look > into Plum and let us know what you like and what you don't like. If you go > through the tutorials provided with the product, they will show you quite a > lot of what Plum can do to really improve your daily development effort. I'll continue to keep track of Plum and play with it from time to time, but the code it generates right now is not remotely like the code I would write, so I'll be using it more for evaluation purposes to keep myself up to speed on what the rest of the world is doing rather than as part of my daily development effort. That of course is subject to change as the feature set changes. > > Respectfully, > > Adam Phillip Churvis > Member of Team Macromedia > http://www.ProductivityEnhancement.com > > Download Plum and other cool development tools, > and get advanced intensive Master-level training: > > * C# & ASP.NET for ColdFusion Developers > * ColdFusion MX Master Class > * Advanced Development with CFMX and SQL Server 2000 > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Special thanks to the CF Community Suite Silver Sponsor - New Atlanta http://www.newatlanta.com Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:4:187826 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/4 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:4 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
