I'm probably going to embarass the s#$t out of myself now, but.. I wrote a painfully long, meandering, stream-of-consciousness blog post on this a couple years ago. I was frustrated, angry, worried, and felt like after years of trying, I had wasted a LOT of time.
http://www.advantexllc.com/blog/post.cfm/how-oo-almost-destroyed-my-business Since then, well... I've managed to get the "advanced features" and "OO religion" a little more under control. It helped that I switched to a framework that was both simple AND still promoted good OO practices, yet stayed out of my way when I needed to get something done. I'm still learning, but that's the mantra of OO... you never really "get" it all. Someone once told me that saying you "Know OO" is like saying you "Know Science"... it's just such a broad subject and there are always new problems that can be solved any number of ways. ColdFusion is still very easy. Someone else here already said it -- don't solve problems you don't have... if OO isn't called for, even if an entire framework would be overkill... then don't use it. As far as jobs, don't worry about not having one until you don't have one... BUT, pick another language and learn it... one that (also) has market value. For me, I chose to switch from Fusebox (where v3 was the last one with which I had efficient success) to CFWheels. It was attractive because of how it mimics RoR... and if I get time (since I'm so busy with my CF jobs, no lie!!) to actually study RoR, there will now be quite an element of familiarity for me. Aside from being well supported, well coded, and well documented, CFWheels is also a nice "gateway drug" if you will. Don't let the "design pattern police" make OO a religion. Choose a framework, when a project appears to be a certain depth, that makes OO in CF as easy as it can be (and remember it's still painfully lacking compared to true OO languages), a framework that helps foster good OO practices WHERE APPROPRIATE. Don't force it, especially with CF... it's a PITA when you go too deep down the rabbit hole with it. My position has changed only a little since my ranting, blog post... but I have been able to start using OO in a bit more sensible way, given the limitations of CF, with the help of CFW and the smart and kind community over yonder. Hope this helps. Marc ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:340668 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/unsubscribe.cfm
