[thesite] CF error on home page

Oliver Lineham oliver at lineham.co.nz
Thu Dec 21 18:17:00 CST 2000


At 03:51 21/12/2000 -0800, you wrote:

>besides, weren't you the one who didn't understand the difference between
>variables with dots and variables that are initialized as structures?

show me another major language that allows an operator (such as '.') to 
exist within a variable name.  most serious languages don't allow it, for 
good reason.

>you even complained about how the language was ugly and primitive compared to
>the "big" languages yet you forgot one of the most basic things you learn in
>those "big" languages which is "typing" your variables when you define them.

no, i didn't forget. i assumed this language would be consistent, which it 
isn't.

in a normal language, you either always have to define variable before 
using them, or never have to.  in CF it can be either.  you can create a 
new primitive variable in a <cfset> on the fly without definition.  but you 
have to define a struct.

consider if allaire had not allowed the '.' in a variable name, and 
reserved it as an operator only.  there would be no need to initialise a 
struct on first use, since
         <cfset somenewstruct.somevar = "something">
would be unambiguous.

yes, the language is primitive.  (it is also ugly, but that's a different 
issue)

>lower quality is a relative term.  if the product has relatively low use
>there simply isn't a need for using locks and the small loss of performance
>associated.

i wear my seatbelt when driving up the road for a loaf of bread.

suit yourself.

>:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>: you said "getting definitive information about how
>: to correctly lock reads and writes of session and
>: application scoped variables is difficult."
>:
>: what is unclear about the language reference's
>: cflock documentation?
>:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>why don't you ask that same question to the people that are asking about
>cflock and how/when to use it about once every two weeks on cf-talk?
>obviously there's something missing or unclear.

this is a classic trade-off between creating a language that is easy for a 
non-programmer to understand, and one that is well structured and consistent.

i have found errors and ambiguities in the CF documentation, yes, but i 
have no problem with CFLOCK documentation.  the docs for CFLOCK are clear 
enough. perhaps they could've written in baby terms for the designers who 
are trying to write CF applications, but then the page would likely have 
been ambiguous to the programmers.

the only aspect that isn't spelled out is that two sessions can exclusively 
lock the SESSION scope independently. however this can be assumed, and is 
clear if you understand the tag's evolution from the NAME attribute. i 
doubt this is the aspect of CFLOCK the non-programmers have been confused 
about.

</ol>

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