Mark, Your success story is *exactly* why we built Plum, but as you well know it isn't just for beginners. David and I use it on every project because it lets experienced developers concentrate entirely on business logic and just handles everything else for you automatically.
And don't sell yourself short, my friend: you will also be extremely useful in guiding how Plum should be changed to accommodate beginning users, which often leads to increased usability across the board. BTW, we're using the BlueDragon version of Plum (internal only for now) on a project with *thousands* of database objects, and we simply could not do the job within timeframe without it. And I'm not just talking about code generation (in fact, even with all those objects, very little of this project uses Plum's code generation tools); I'm talking about things like the structure exception handling framework, security, layouts, and just knowing instantly where everything goes and not having to think about how to execute it. We've also incorporated Nifty Corners in a more advanced way than the inventors envisioned for it. Much more flexible, and you can split your presentation code among individual "pods" that just place on a page. We made a Nifty Corners framework of sorts that integrates with nested custom tags, and everything is placed using CSS absolute positioning. It's gorgeous, and load times are wicked fast. Anyway, there's a lot to look forward to. We're truly honored to have you on board, Mark. Respectfully, Adam Phillip Churvis Member of Team Macromedia Certified Advanced ColdFusion MX 7 Developer 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 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mark Fuqua" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, September 28, 2005 2:54 PM Subject: RE: [plum] Taking Plum in a new direction > Good Morning, > > I am certainly up for helping and for the meeting in Atlanta. > > I have been thinking about this since I read Adam's email last night. It > seems like my limited coding skill set means my time will be best spent > working on documentation. It may not be as cool as other aspects, but it > will never-the-less need to be done. > > Additionally, I think I can bring a unique and valuable perspective to the > discussion of how to improve not only Plum as a product, but also it's > perception in the larger coldfusion community. > > As I have already mentioned (and I am sure everyone on this list has > ascertained already), my coding skills are very weak. In fact, before the > project I am working on now, I have started quite a few, but completed only > two websites, both in Dreamweaver...mostly design view. I rarely went over > to the code view and when I did...I found it quite frustrating. > > For the sake of accuracy in what follows, I should mention I think I had a > decent academic understanding of coldfusion constructs and sql. Also, the > application I am working on has been in my head for the past three years and > I have made several furtive attempts to develop it before now. > > That being said, within the next two weeks, my first real application will > be ready for testing within my own company. I started working on it after > CFUnited at the beginning of July, essentially in my spare time. Let me > give you a before and after Plum comparison between the last website I > built...BP (before Plum) and this application...AP(after Plum). > > SHORT VERSION: No. 1 PLUM ROCKS!!! (Especially for those who can't > duplicate what Plum produces "out of the box") No. 2 PLUM MAKES A GREAT > TUDOR. Working with plum demonstrates and teaches best practices. > > BP www.mdprofinish.com > > Developed in: Dreamweaver, 85% design view > Layout: Tabular, page by page, inline html > Number of folders: 5 > Number of Files: 55 > Size on disk: 550K > Number of Database tables: 0 > Security: None > Function: brochure on the web > > > AP (local host) > > Developed in: Dreamweaver, 100% code view (BTW Jeff has already developed > code hint/completion for Dreamweaver) > Layout: Tabular for form data, css for styles and layout of non-tabular > page elements (<2% inline html) > Number of Folders: 136 > Number of Files: 1077 > Size on Disk: 2.94 Mb > Security: robust, roles based, easily implemented on a modular, page or > section basis. > Number of Database tables: 65 with referential integrity. > Function: Set-up and enforce company wide business processes. Briefly > including- > Office Admin > Contacts, Appointments, Tasks, Job set-up, messages, Time > Cards > My Admin > variations/subsets of Office Admin based on role: customer, job > leader, project manager, app admin > Estimating > a complete online estimating system > JobAdmin > Time Cards, Piecework tracking, Daily task tracking, Job journal, > Job Paint schedules, Purchase orders, job completion reports, material > ordering, Material usage Tracking > Reporting > Daily individual production reports (incorporating Piecework, > Daily task tracking and time cards from jobadmin) Daily Job production > reports, Company wide production reports. > > I am not patting my own back, but Adam and David's back. From my intimate > perspective, the difference between BP and AP is astounding. Not only am I > going to see version 1.0 of a really cool application very soon, but I feel > I have learned more in the last few months than I would have been able to > learn in the next couple of years without Plum. > > I think most of the developers currently using PLUM may be too skilled to > truly appreciate the purple power we all call Plum. I would love to help > with documentation, evangelism and making sure Plum doesn't lose it's appeal > for beginners. > > Thanks Adam and David, > > Mark Fuqua > > > > > > > > > > > > > > ********************************************************************** > > > > ********************************************************************** > You can subscribe to and unsubscribe from lists, and you can change > your subscriptions between normal and digest modes here: > > http://www.productivityenhancement.com/support/DiscussionListsForm.cfm > ********************************************************************** > ********************************************************************** You can subscribe to and unsubscribe from lists, and you can change your subscriptions between normal and digest modes here: http://www.productivityenhancement.com/support/DiscussionListsForm.cfm **********************************************************************
