I am an apprentice programmer. A ColdFusion Padawan. I realize that now.

Up until recently, if something code needed writing, I simply wrote it. I did not consider whether there could be another way, or if I was duplicating code. I simply wrote it and tested it until it worked.

I was first introduced to the concept of Object Oriented Programming (OOP) by some workmates back when I was a systems admin. Sometimes when we had some downtime, I’d get a few quick lessons in programming techniques in Java, most of which went way over my head. Struts, beans, model view controller – alien terms.

It has become apparent that I am sorely lacking in jargon, for starters. Simply having a work conversation with my designer/business partner makes this obvious. This is one of the drawbacks of being self-educated. I refer to the “thing” and I struggle to find the word. He throws his hands up in frustration.

A few days ago, he started looking in to Mate, which apparently is some sort of framework for Flex applications. I was vaguely aware of frameworks from when I developed in PHP – specifically the Zend Framework, which I played with for about an hour before giving up. Bad, I know.

Anyway nothing bothers me more than not knowing things that I should. It’s something of an obsession, really. So I decided that I should look into grasping the full thrust of OOP and frameworks, specifically as they apply to ColdFusion. I imagine the concepts are universal, so I could take it back to PHP if I ever needed to. I have a feeling that some of the things I’ve been doing already fit within the OOP best practices, but I gather I could improve things further. And such is my knowledge that I’m not sure what I’ve done that is or isn’t OOP. At the very least, I’d like to be in a state without these doubts.

The first resource I’ve found for this is cfOOP.org, which appears to be fairly new but once it gets fleshed out could be exactly what I need. And as far as frameworks go, I’m leaning towards Mach-II as it is reportedly the most “mature” framework, as well as the most easy to use – which again is a relative term since some of the concepts are still new to me.

Does anyone out there have a suggestion of reading material, or another practical resource I could use? Perhaps even suggest an alternative to Mach-II that an apprentice might better learn from?