From Coldfusion to Java or C++: Any advice?
I have been coding coldfusion for about 7 years now, since I first got the Coldfusion Express edition and learning kit when it was still owned by Alliare. Next week I start 2 new classes at school, Java I and C++ I (with JAVA II and C++ II the following semester) Does anyone have any advice for me? I have at least been exposed to Java in my CF travels, but I have done little else in C++ than compile a 'hello world application. I know Java has many frameworks, is there one that would be more useful to learn over another one? How about C++, are there frameworks out there (I'm sure there are, I just have never been exposed yet).
I'm a big fan of Eclipse, and feel very comfortable within it. Can I work just as easily in Eclipse with C++ as I do with CF or Java? What are the best plugins for Java or C++ work?
Thanks anyone for advice you can offer!
Aug 26, 2008 at 8:25 AM You will not likely need any frameworks for Java I or C++ 1, you will however very likely use OOP. The most pain you will encounter is converting your datatypes manually, 1/2 of the errors I got in those classes was from datatype mismatch (CF is nice about that). You should do fine.
Aug 26, 2008 at 10:42 AM Thanks Kris, appreciate the response!
Aug 26, 2008 at 10:53 AM I've been working more in Java recently myself, it's a fun change. I did find Java for ColdFusion developers to be a useful read for bridging between the two languages. ISBN 0-13-046180-6 you can sometimes find it for a reasonable price on Amazon.
Quick points on Java (I don't know how much exposure you've had), NULL isn't treated as an empty string in Java, you get NullPointerExceptions if you don't specifically handle NULLs. Explicitly stating and casting your data types and case sensitivity will be some of the other the other gotchas when you make the transition. Also, Strings are Objects, so you can't compare them using string1 = string2 you have to use the equals and compareTo methods of the string object instead... For the most part people seem to be looking for folks who use Hibernate and Spring for frameworks in Java, so I'd say those are probably the ones to work with there. Sorry I don't have anything on C++...
Nov 5, 2008 at 3:12 PM Java is just that, JAVA. Java is just classes with methods, Coldfusion, calls Java methods, a la Coldfusion Components.
Tackle Java one class at a time.
I am build GOAT. An enterprise search solution build off of Lucene (Apache), with Coldfusion on the front end. It is completed now. I will be publishing the source-code in compile of weeks.
Give me a shout if you need anything.
BTW: C++ is dead with respect to CF. Mostly everyone write Java files.