The Psychedelic Fusebox Interview: All the Fusebox You Can Smoke

 
Aug 04, 2004

We caught up with Hal Helms the other day, Fusebox motivator, moderator and all around magic mojo man, and we said to him, "Hal, my man, whatcha got for me today? What's cool, what's hot, what's hip, what makes it swing?"

And Hal, in his most serious of voices said, "I can't tell ya. What I have is so good, it's illegal in some states. It is so kickin' that it may just blind you to everything else. I just don't know if you're man enough for it. It takes a certain characteristic to deal with what I can lay on ya."

I took this as a personal challenge, and I just had to know -- What was it? What was the big news? What was this thing that would change my life? "Hal, you gotta tell me. Be the man. Inform my ears with your wisdom."

And with that, a twirling disco ball dropped out of the ceiling and PFunk started playing as Hal started expounding upon ... Fusebox.

HH: You've gotta come to the Fusebox conference in September to hear my keynote speech. It'll be the bomb! I'm going to enlist some help from folks in the room to show off the new version of Fusebox (4.1) and to talk about ways that developers can use Fusebox to enhance their own standing in their organization.
 
MS: So, you're going to release 4.1 at the conference?
 
HH: That's right, Michael. And because I can guess you're going to ask what's new, I can tell you that we've added a way to invoke and persist objects from the XML circuit file. We've added in a very nice assertion mechanism, and we've responded to some of the requests from various Fuseboxers.
 
MS: Ah ... And what about developers using Fusebox to help themselves within their organization?
 
HH: I think this is a big deal. You've heard me say many times that the average success rate for custom, corporate software projects is less than 30%. It hasn't changed much in fifteen years. It's gotten a little better, but no great breakthroughs. But in that fifteen years, we've switched from procedural apps to OO apps.
 
MS: Hmmm...but the failure rate hasn't gone down.
 
HH: No, suggesting that the problem isn't going to be solved with a technological silver bullet. Now, lots of smart people recognize this, so we have things like agile methodology.
 
MS: Kent Beck's Extreme Programming?
 
HH: Yes, that's probably the best known agile methodology. Fusebox, though, offers both a methodology (FLiP) that's been proven in a great number of situations - something that XP has not yet done - and a mature, solid framework to help developers write applications more quickly and efficiently.
 
MS: Now, what about Fusebox and OO? If we want to do OO development, do we need to go with something like Mach-II?
 
HH: As one of the principals of Mach-II, I'm happy to have people evaluate it, but the answer to your question is "No". The difference in Fusebox and Mach-II is essentially one of whether you want the framework code written in OO.
 
MS: Does that really matter?
 
HH: Not to most people, no. I find that people who were "raised" on OO just like how Mach-II does things. It seems more natural to them. But I do OO development all the time with Fusebox.
 
MS: You're a pretty big supporter of OO. Will you be talking about that at the conference?
 
HH: I won't, but another speaker will discuss this in a separate session. Of course, I'm always happy to share a beer with any of the conferees - is that the right word? - and discuss geeky stuff like this.
 
MS: Is the conference geared to beginners or mostly established Fuseboxers?
 
HH: We're seeing a resurgence in ColdFusion as a viable choice for development. That means we're seeing new developers come on board, so we have separate tracks for beginners and for existing Fuseboxers.
 
MS: Any last thoughts?
 
HH: I hope folks come to this Fusebox conference; I think there's going to be lots of very good stuff that they won't want to miss.
 
MS: Thanks, Hal.

You can see more interviews at http://www.cfconf.org/Fusebox2004/news.cfm and here on Fusion Authority. The Fusebox Conference is Saturday 9/18/04 - Sunday 9/19/04 in the Washington DC area. It costs $149. For more information on the Fusebox Conf see http://www.cfconf.org/Fusebox2004/
Hal Helms is a well-known speaker/writer/strategist on software development issues. Hal has a monthly column in "ColdFusion Developer's Journal" and has written and contributed to several books.

His latest book is Discovering CFCs, available at http://www.techspedition.com. Hal holds training sessions on Java, ColdFusion, and software development processes. He is the author of the popular "Occasional Newsletter" series. For more information, see his website, http://www.halhelms.com.

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