Mark Drew (Redux)- cf_etc...

I wanted to put down (for the help of new Switchers and myself) a list of applications I consider a top 10 of commercial (have to pay) applications for OS X. There are so many applications that are free on the Mac, that cover nearly everything you want to do, but for this post I wanted to cover some of the paid for applications. I know there are Open Source alternatives for most of this software, but sometimes there is just software that *IS* worth the few pounds/dollars/euros that it takes to buy them. Please bear in mind, that I am a web developer (or application developer depending on the time of day) so these are focused on what I do. So without further ado here is my list (in no particular order): 1) TextMate http://macromates.com/ &euro 39 This is the "Missing Text Editor" for the Mac. I use this all the time, and there is a CFML plugin for it, for when you need to edit those random CFML files. Obviously for projects I use CFEclipse, but a text editor is always a handy tool 2) QuickTime Pro http://www.apple.com/quicktime/pro/ £ 20 QuickTime already comes with OS X but what you really want is the very cheap Pro edition, if only to watch stuff in full screen, and not to mention its export capabilities! 3) Parallels http://www.parallels.com/en/products/desktop/ $79.99 /VMWare Fusion http://www.vmware.com/beta/fusion/ $ 39.99 (for pre-orders) With the advent of the IntelMacs, we can now run Windows natively or in Virtualisation, so these are the best (maybe only) tools for the job! I classify both of these as one since they do the same job (I have been checking out VMWare Fusion for a few weeks using my BootCamp drive, and I am really enjoying it, it seems faster than Parallels) Don't boot up your Mac without at least one of these! 4) iWork http://www.apple.com/iwork/ $79 I do a lot of presentations and the best software for that is Keynote, it just runs rings round PowerPoint (now if only Adobe Connect would support either PDF or Keynote files!!) I dont use Pages as much, but its still a lot nicer than the interface-cluttering Microsoft Word. 5) Coda http://www.panic.com/coda/ $69 We all have some small sites to manage, and Coda, a new kid on the block brings in some real nice features for this. I think its worth it alone for the CSS and the Site panel (which it automatically creates thumbnails of your sites!) I haven't bought this yet, but I am really liking it. EDIT: the latest version of Coda supports CFML too. 6) Adobe Fireworks CS3 http://www.adobe.com/products/fireworks/ $299 I am not a designer but I love Fireworks. I have been using it for years and its the best web graphic design software I have used. I know Adobe Photoshop is the daddy but the ability to do everything web design related in one package (down to creating the HTML for you) is just too good. I love this app! 7) Aqua Data Studio http://www.aquafold.com/ $399 There are apps for every database out there, but if you are connecting to a variety of databases this rules. Unfortunately because of the price I have to install Windows and use Microsoft MSSQL Enterprise Manager, but if I could afford this, Windows would end up just being a shell for Internet Explorer. This is a must if you do a lot of database work. (Aqua Data Studio v4.7 is actually free, but it doesn't have all the features I would like it to have) 8) OmniGraffle http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnigraffle/ from $79 If you are doing a lot of diagrams, be they UML to system architecture, OmniGraffle makes it really nice with very impressive results. 9) OmniPlan http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omniplan/ $149.95 I always hated Microsoft Project, there is something evil about it (maybe just because I am a developer) but when I had a go on Omni Plan, I thought "hey, I *CAN* get into project management!". As with OmniGraffle its results are impressive as well as pretty, and hey, if you are going to be staring at something all day, you might as well be staring at something good right? 10) Delicious Library http://www.delicious-monster.com/ $40 This is a great little tool if you have lots of DVD's (and books) as well as appreciative friends who like borrowing them. The main thing about this is that you can very easily create a whole library of your DVD's simply by scanning the bar-code using your iSight camera. You can then have a list of who you have lent out your DVD's too as well as loads more info and suggestions (driven by Amazon I think?) So, there it is, my 10 must-buy applications for OS X. Edit: If you think this post was usefult, why dont you Digg it?

A reader asks:

I've installed it (using Software Updates) but can't seem to get the context sensitive help to work. Each time I click F1 it redirects the browser pane to http://www.cfeclipse.org/cfdocs/?query=cfif (for example) which is an invalid page. Is there a way to have local help on the language?

This is a mistake, I was a bit over enthusiastic with my archiving procedure on friday, and lost our cfquickdocs redirection. This is a new feature, in CFEclipse 1.2.1 (previous version) the help would point to www.cfdocs.org but that site has died, now we do two things:

1. If you dont have the Coldfusion Extensions from Adobe it will point to http://cfquickdocs.com and get you the relevant help in your internal browser
2. If you have the flex builder plugin or the Coldfusion Extensions (I think its the extensions, I cant remember off the top of my head) it will do a search in the local docs.

Why is this you might ask? Well, the CFEclipse team dont re-distribute the help, Adobe does, so we try and make it a bit easier by giving you the choice. Another thing is built in CFEclipse help. If you go to Help -> Help Contents and expand the CFEclipse node, you might find its a little bare. I have to admit, I am terrible at writing this documentation, so if anybody wants to help, they could write on various topics about CFEclipse and I shall update the help, I would be most greatful!

I just got a question sent to me and its something I would like to clear up (and show where the responsibilities lie really). The question is:

I've recently moved to CFE from Dreamweaver. I used to be able to double-click a .cfm/.cfc file and have Dreamweaver start up and be editing that file. However, if I change the default app for these files to eclipse, when I double click a new instance of Eclipse starts up and I get an error about my workspace being locked if Eclipse is already open. Is there anything I can do to default opening new files with Eclipse to the current instance?

Basically Eclipse doesn't work in this way ("WHAT?!!" you might say). It has the idea of Projects which you map to a web folder, so you would (for example) create a CFML Project, give it a name (hmmm... mySite seems to do nicely) and then, instead of using the "Default Location", point it to your site. You can then edit stuff directly. "Of course..." you might say, "...but what if I want to edit the custom tags under Coldfusion, they aren't in my web directory!", in this situation, I find that linked folders work a treat, and also means I don't have to alt+Tab back to Windows Explorer/OS X Finder. If you want to see how to implement them, watch this little video I made a while back. (basically create a new folder in your project in eclipse, give it a name, click advanced, and select the folder it actually points to outside your project). I find that it takes some getting used to, but after a while, I don't really run around using the Windows Explorer/OS X Finder anymore looking for things. If you also go to Windows -> Preferences -> General -> Keys and find the cfscript keybinding (Ctrl + Shift + R) and remove it, you can now, from anywhere in the IDE hit those keys, enter the file name you get a dialog that you can enter a file name (and even use wildcards such as * and ?) and it will search through ALL your projects and find the file you are looking for. Much easier that silly explorer eh? I hope that helps, even though it doesn't directly answer your question. On a related note, we have also provided the File Explorer view, (Window -> Show View -> Other... ->CFML -> File Explorer) which allows you to browse your filesystem like the "good" old days with Homesite. You can even add FTP servers! Edit: Just so you know, this is an oft requested feature of Eclipse anyway check out this bug https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=4922

I added the ASK MD pod on my blog so people could get in touch with me easily, the idea being that I could write them back as a blog post (hence I dont ask their email etc) but I noticed that by having "ASK MD" I have been getting some rather strange questions of a medical nature. Now, I am quite knowledgeable in ColdFusion, CFEclipse, Java, Web Development in general and other random things (like Lost plotlines etc) but some of the questions I cant answer. So sorry folks, if you have come here to ask me how many quaaludes it takes to get you high or other much more *intimate* questions... I am not your type of MD. And seriously... dont you read *anything* on the blog before posting?!

What a day for framework releases!! ColdfFusion on Wheels has just reached 0.5 status and it comes with a great new set of features such as scaffolding, better render() methods, IIS support and finders. It also has support for IIS which I think would be a big thing in helping its more commercial use (I know I am a Mac guy but enough CF installations run on Windows and IIS) I cant comment on its use just yet but it is a great time to get hooked onto Frameworks! Another thing that Rob Cameron commented was that CFonWheels is probably the first framework that relies on Application.cfc which is very interesting as its the first framework aimed at ColdFusion 7. About time too!

I am afraid that the update site is a bit broken at the moment, I dont know why, but I am re-doing the update site so the nightly is also there as a BER release so you can get you updates from one place. Another thing we are doing is setting up, and this might take a while, is an SVN repository and trac system for CFEclipse, so it will make it easier to manage the project and releases as well as for people to submit bugs, we have been wanting to move away from Tigris for a while, so this is the first step... as long as we can get all the CVS repository! On another note, I have added a black T-shirt to the CFEclipse Gear website! So if white is not your colour, then you can also go black :) Edit: This is in answer to the ASK MD pod by the way! Also, Han shot first. Edit 2: I have changed the black t-shirt to have a larger logo, hope you like it (from an ASK MD suggestion!)