Mark Drew (Redux)- cf_etc...

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Mark Drew (Redux)- cf_etc...

Just for fun: What if your IDE had Achievements?

January 19, 2012 · 20 Comments

Following on from a post that Visual Studio has an Achievements Plugin (very funny if you play on the XBox, Steam or PS3) I was just thinking what Achievements  could we unlock if we had a plugin for CFEclipse (or CFBuilder) whilst coding CFML?

I love some of the ones mentioned here:  http://blog.whiletrue.com/2011/01/what-if-visual-studio-had-achievements/

As a starter for 10, here would be the ones I would add (and any sugestions welcome!) 

  • Big Boy Pants: Finally created a CFC
  • If you build it, they will come: Created a build.xml ant file
  • Sign o' the Times: renamed an Application.cfm to Application.cfc
  • So Close!: Created a CFC with more than 20 functions
  • Confusious Say!: Created a function with more than 10 arguments
  • "Where? What??": Have an include with lots of variables that come from "nowhere" (are set in the caller)

(EDIT:And now for some reader contributions:)

  • The Over Clocker: 40+ hours in the IDE in a week
  • The Mole: 50+ hours in the IDE in a week
  • UberCoder: 60+ hours...
  • The Hacker: 70+ hours!
  • The Lawyer: 80+ hours!!!
  • "Scriptaculous!": Create all your CFCs using cfscript syntax without using any tags at all.
  • "The Butler did it": Hook up a continuous integration server to run all your unit tests.
  • "Lethal Injection? Bring it on!" Use <cfqueryparam> in all your database queries.
  • "Var she blows!": Make sure you var all your local variables before you use them.
  • "Digging Deeper":Call at least one underlying java method directly from within coldfusion.
  • "To infinity and beyond!": Created an infinite loop.
  • "Manual-Complete" : Write a template over a set length without using auto-complete once.
  • "Hey Beavis, he wants to see your unit!" : Ran unit tests
  • "Old school": Use any deprecated language feature.
  • "Everyone isn't created equal": Use == and eq in the same file.
  • "....and then?": Use && and "and" in the same file.
  • "..or you'll do what?": Use || and "or" in the same file.

And now for some Arnie based ones:

  • "Stick around" - Use sleep().
  • "Who is your daddy and what does he do?" - Use CFlogin
  • "Consider that a divorce!" - First use of CFAbort
  • "I'm a cop you idiot!" - CFlocation tag with a 401 status code.

And back to some community based ones:

  • "If you build it, they will come (Corfield of Dreams)" - Make use of FW/1
  • "Big Ben" - Found Ben Nadel formatted comments.
  • "Use the Forge Luke!" - Found a Riaforge project.
  • "You say Rail-o, I say Rhylo, Let's call the whole thing off!" - Railo exclusive code found.
  • "01000100011101010110010001100101" - Use bitwise operators.
  • "Lost in space" - More than 10 CFC's without output="false".
  • "You're a bad mother BEEP" - Detect use of Chr(8)
  • "Chuck Norris" - All achievements earned
  • "Evil Dead, Chainsaw" - Detected use of Groovy (CFGroovy).
  • "Mezcal, not Tequila" - Bug found at the bottom of your file.
  • "Go Duplicate(your.self)!" - Copied, pasted and then saved without changing.
  • "You want the truth!?" - If statement containing >= 20 logic operators.
  • "At least open a window!" - 10 or more CFDump / WriteDump in a single file.
  • "Toilet break" - first use of cflog
  • "Getting rid of the evidence": first use of CFFlush
  • "Laxatives?" - Several uses of CFFlush in a single file.
  • "Dr. Strangelove": first use of ORM.

What would you add that is CFML specific? 

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Tags: cfeclipse · cfml · coldfusion

20 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Dahlia Greenberg // Jan 19, 2012 at 2:36 PM

    I don't know. It kind of infantalizes a highly skilled, cerebral and challenging profession. While I am not surprised to see this in Visual Studio, where people don't code, so much as click and drag, I just can't see real programmers finding much use for something like this. But maybe that's just me.

  • 2 Mark Drew // Jan 19, 2012 at 2:43 PM

    How about Achievement Unlocked "The overworker" when you have clocked over 40 hours at the IDE in a single week? This would give you ideas that maybe you should make better choices in life?
    It pushes you to maybe be aware of what you are doing right and wrong.

    Having said that, there lots of people out there that just do this as a job rather than a profession. *sigh*

  • 3 Edward Trudeau // Jan 19, 2012 at 2:51 PM

    Well, if you have the "The Overworker" then you also need levels of achievement in that, perhaps:

    The Overworker (40+)
    The Mole (50+)
    UberCoder (60+)
    The Hacker (70+)
    The Lawyer (80+)

    /ejt

  • 4 Seajay // Jan 19, 2012 at 2:58 PM

    "Scriptaculous!"
    Create all your CFCs using cfscript syntax without using any tags at all.

    "The Butler did it"
    Hook up a continuous integration server to run all your unit tests.

    "Lethal Injection? Bring it on!"
    Use <cfqueryparam> in all your database queries.

    "Var she blows!"
    Make sure you var all your local variables before you use them.

    "Digging Deeper"
    Call at least one underlying java method directly from within coldfusion.

  • 5 Todd Rafferty // Jan 19, 2012 at 4:10 PM

    I suggested "To infinity and beyond!" for infinite loops.

  • 6 Michael Hnat // Jan 19, 2012 at 4:18 PM

    And all of them are presented by the MS Office Assistant "Clippy". The little paperclip with the soulful eyes and the Groucho eyebrows.

  • 7 Mark Drew // Jan 19, 2012 at 4:22 PM

    @Michael "I see you are trying to write an Application.cfc, would you like help with that?"

  • 8 Rick Osborne // Jan 19, 2012 at 11:22 PM

    Someone built this for Git last year:

    http://benjamin-meyer.blogspot.com/2010/03/git-achievements.html

    (MD: edited broken link)

  • 9 David Boyer // Jan 20, 2012 at 11:20 AM

    "Manual-Complete" - Write a template over a set length without using auto-complete once.

    "Hey Beavis, he wants to see your unit!" - Ran unit tests

    "Old school" - Use any deprecated language feature.

    "Everyone isn't created equal" - Use == and eq in the same file.

    "....and then?" - Use && and "and" in the same file.

    "..or you'll do what?" - Use || and "or" in the same file.

    How about some classic Arnie one-liners...
    "Stick around" - Use sleep().
    "Who is your daddy and what does he do?" - Use CFlogin
    "Consider that a divorce!" - First use of CFAbort
    "I'm a cop you idiot!" - CFlocation tag with a 401 status code.

  • 10 Mark Drew // Jan 20, 2012 at 12:36 PM

    @Rick: Ahh, good idea!
    @David: Those are frisking hilarious! I might expand the main post with them!

  • 11 David Boyer // Jan 20, 2012 at 12:58 PM

    @Mark: I could probably come up with loads more ;)

    "If you build it, they will come (Corfield of Dreams)" - Make use of FW/1
    "Big Ben" - Found Ben Nadel formatted comments.
    "Use the Forge Luke!" - Found a Riaforge project.
    "You say Rail-o, I say Rhylo, Let's call the whole thing off!" - Railo exclusive code found.

  • 12 Mark Drew // Jan 20, 2012 at 1:02 PM

    David you are cracking me up! :D

    Time to make a big list!

  • 13 David Boyer // Jan 20, 2012 at 1:44 PM

    Some of these could be negative achivements (minus points) ;)

    "01000100011101010110010001100101" - Use bitwise operators.
    "Lost in space" - More than 10 CFC's without output="false".
    "You're a bad mother BEEP" - Detect use of Chr(8)
    "Chuck Norris" - All achivements earned
    "Evil Dead, Chainsaw" - Detected use of Groovy (CFGroovy).
    "Mezcal, not Tequila" - Bug found at the bottom of your file.
    "Go Duplicate(your.self)!" - Copied, pasted and then saved without changing.
    "You want the truth!?" - If statement containing >= 20 logic operators.
    "At least open a window!" - 10 or more CFDump / WriteDump in a single file.

    Must resist doing more and get on with some real work ;)

  • 14 Mark Drew // Jan 20, 2012 at 1:51 PM

    Sir you are a genius!
    More more! I shall add them to the main blog!

  • 15 Andy Jarrett // Jan 20, 2012 at 2:06 PM

    "Toilet break" - first use of cflog

  • 16 Mark Drew // Jan 20, 2012 at 2:14 PM

    @Andy:
    "Getting rid of the evidence": first use of CFFlush

  • 17 David Boyer // Jan 20, 2012 at 2:15 PM

    @Mark: "Laxatives?" - Several uses of CFFlush in a single file.

  • 18 Mark Drew // Jan 20, 2012 at 2:18 PM

    "Dr. Strangelove": first use of ORM.

  • 19 Mark Drew // Jan 20, 2012 at 5:21 PM

    And some more from David!
    "Poised like a coild cold spring" - Coldspring ;)
    "You're spending a night in the box!" - Coldbox
    "Don't blow a fuse" - Fusebox
    "Needless slashing, kinky" - Closing single tags, e.g. "/>"

  • 20 Mark Drew // Jan 20, 2012 at 5:24 PM

    And some more!
    "Let's roll!" - CFWheels
    "Faster than light (or neutrinos)" - coding at over 100 tags per minute

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