Tom Peer

A two-part series looks at techniques for shifting workload away from the application server and onto the database by using "extra" database tables. It's just an average search - three full text indexes, ten subselects on many-to-many joins, and a bit of Pythagoras - to find resul... (more)

A two-part series looks at techniques for shifting workload away from the application server onto the database by using "extra" database tables. Most ColdFusion programmers understand that when it comes to bulk inserting into a database, it isn't good practice to loop over text fi... (more)

When I started I was using Macromedia's Director. It was the most productive and definitely the most enjoyable stage of my career - we had a great tool to build great products. Sadly the CD-ROM market bombed as the novelty wore off, and as business began eyeing the Web with dolla... (more)

Coding ColdFusion and coding JavaScript are about as far apart on the productivity spectrum as it's possible to be. CF tags are neat, easy to read, tolerant, and fun to write. JavaScript is none of that. It has all the drawbacks of traditional languages, with the added disadvanta... (more)

Given the number of applications available for developing database front ends, it might seem strange that the most popular method of doing it is using HTML and an application server. It's become apparent, however, that the Web offers something in terms of simplicity and familiari... (more)

One of the reasons I was first drawn to ColdFusion was the built-in functionality for such things as sending e-mail, making HTTP requests, FTP uploads - all the myriad subsidiary functions you inevitably find yourself using when you build and manage large sites. Content has to b... (more)

[Ed. Note: We've run articles on this in the past, but - we can never say it enough!] Cutting ColdFusion code is fun, and therein lies ColdFusion's biggest problem. It's too easy to get carried away writing code to do things that should be happening in the database itself - or o... (more)