Book Description
The Compaq Associate ASE, Windows 2000 Specialty Exam Cram prepares candidatet significantly from the book's tear-out cram sheets and memory joggers, sections on proven test-taking strategies, warnings on trick questions, and timesaving study tips
From the Author
A developer's commentEven though I have not yet seen a copy of the finished product,
as the developer of a number of the sample applications that
appeared in this book I feel compelled to respond to some of the
very negative criticism.
While I can't speak for the author or the publisher, my own
understanding of the project was that it was targeted at the
relative novice, corporate managers who are just now starting to
think about an Intranet ... not at professional developers.
Think about how much CF code you'd be able to understand the day
after you first learned to write HTML?
The applications I developed were indeed done in CF2 (which was in
release at the time of development), and in the spirit of a novice
orientation piece they were intentionally not to be very sophisticated.
No frames, no style sheets, no Java or client-side scripting, etc.,
after all the aim was to show Cold Fusion at work, not everything
else but!
Where otherwise might have been compound queries or dynamic
SQL created within CFLOOP, almost all of the SQL was simple and
straight forward to allow an untrained reader to see what was being
done.
As I recall, about the only sophistication was the use of colored
tables (which were changed for photography and I fear were never
restored, judging by what I have seen on the author's web site ...
but hey, in the real world mistakes get made), and CFINCLUDE for
common headers and footers.
By and large the templates contained no documentation or remarks,
that being left up to the author.
At the last minute, since CF3.0 was due out, we were pressed to test
compliance of the applications with pre-release CF3.0 Alpha/Beta,
and I most certainly delivered a fully tested version (1.0a7-CF3b2)
prior to publication for inclusion on the CD.
I did not add further to the CF3.0 issue apart for commenting that
the most obvious changes I might make would be to use the Java
components (example: CFTREE for the Intranet Map which was thrown
together with gifs originally). There were to have been CF3.0 side
bars in the publication.
Bear in mind that the developers were solicited with the expectation
of doing GRATIS, one or maybe 2 applications. However, I ended up
with 6 on my plate (one of the other guys got hit by a bus) and I
added both a Help and a Security layer so that the applications could
more or less act as a complete unit.
I stand behind these applications, not as examples of fully completed
contracted work nor as representations of the extent of capability,
but as simple samples of basic Cold Fusion at work.
All of this having been said, if the book is approached in the spirit
that I believe was intended, it is surely good value.
For those who wish to view the sample applications as they were
delivered for CF3b2, I've posted them live at http://www.cfx.org/abg
running thus far untested on CF3.1Alpha. Bear in mind that this is a
test server so it may be unresponsive from time to time.
Also available from this site is the CF3.0 compliant code in a ZIP file.
Jim Shaw
Global Online Inc.
With an Amazon.co.uk 
