As Dr Karl Kruszelnicki says, if you can not explain something, you don't really know it; and I have found the best way to learn something is to teach it.So, with that in mind, when Geoff Bowers asked for Farcry Mentors for his application to Google Summer of Code, I put my hand up. I would really like to see a full-blown Blog Plug-in for Farcry, so if any students are interested in this one, so am I.Read Geoff's Farcry application to Google Summer of Code.

I bought myself Head First Design Patterns book based on a recommendation by Hal Helms a while ago and stalled a couple of patterns in.But now, after attending a couple of OO courses by Dwayne Read at  Strategic Systems - Perth, I am all pumped again. So I have decided that a good way to learn these Patterns would be to convert the JAVA example to ColdFusion.I have just finished my first attempt. You can have a look at my Decorator Pattern in the Tutorial section of my site.

The dates and venues are locked in and registrations are open.    Register to attend CFCAMP in PerthBen Forta will be presenting the keynote talk, followed up by Mark Blair and Andrew Spaulding from Adobe Australia. Robin Hilliard from RocketBoots will also be flying over to join in. There will also be local presenters sharing their ColdFusion knowledge with us. So, come along and see what is new in the wonderful world of ColdFusion.

Adobe have released the eighth version of ColdFusion in it's 12 year life, but still people say it is dead or dieing. At the CFUGWA meeting we discussed at length why this is the case: Is it the lack of marketing? Is it too expensive? Are there not enough people learning the language? Marketing When ever I flick though a IT mag, I very rarely see and Adobe article or advert; and if I do it wont be for ColdFusion.

Mango Beta 2 is out and I have upgraded my site. It has a script to run that does the upgrade for you - very neat. The updater add the new features to the skins that are supplied, but as I have ported (an open source) skin, I had to add the new features myself. I also added the search functionality while I was added. Search has been enhanced such that if verity is not set up, it does a database search. Seems to work fine for the quick tests I have run.

Days before the release of Farcry CMS 4.0.9, Daemon have release a training book that is a great resource for developers. At 122 pages, it is a very thorough document on the CMS and how to do custom development. I will say this will put a end to the last criticism of this open source project - it now has excellent documentation. Well done Daemonites. So go read the FarCry 4.

Adobe Australia is putting on a mini-conference for developers to promote ColdFusion 8. Ben Forta will be attending all the events. CFUWA is getting behind this and was instrumental in getting Perth put on the tour. Whilst this event is being promoted by Adobe, it will require a lot of local content to make it a success.

The September meeting will be on the 25th at Patersons.

Moving from procedural CFML to OO is a steep learning curve - especially if you want to take all all the cool stuff like a MCV framework, Transfer or Reactor, and tie it all together with ColdSpring. So where do you start? One way is to start of small with primers and start writing your own test pages, slowly adding a bit more each time. Then you put it all together in a mini application.