I apologize for the obscure Shreck reference but that scene from the movie pops into my head every-time I start thinking about all of the different layers we code into our applications. I was thinking recently about how many different layers we use and I started to wonder, are we doing this because it truly makes our applications better or simply because we can?

As ColdFusion has progressed as a language, lots of these concepts have started to surface from other types of programming. Seven years ago, no-one was talking about building service layers and domain models in the ColdFusion community, we were so focused on frameworks and trying to increase code re-use. Now its not uncommon for an application to use a framework and MVC to separate the views from the model and use a controller to tie it all together, then throw in a service layer as your model which points to a data access layer and processing logic layer and, well you get the point.

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I've been reading the Object Oriented Analysis and Design book from Head First lately and its really starting to make me think about the way I develop applications. Aside from being a very well written book, it instantly makes you think back about some of the decisions you have made in the past when designing your applications.

One thing that I have been really struggling with over the last year or so is really nailing down a process and software for the requirements tracking and architecture design of my applications. Those of you who know me, know I have been around the Fusebox community long enough to remember when Fusebox 2 was released and the very cleverly masterminded emails of the most underrated internet icon of all time, the great Stan Cox. So I was big into using Adalon to fill those needs. It really helped to force you into the FLiP process and design great software. After several years though, Synthis stopped working on Adalon so the progress of this great tool came to a halt, along with its usefulness.

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I've been using Fusebox for well over 6 years now. Its the only framework I have have ever used when developing applications for clients or myself. Its served its purpose well and has always seemed to fit my needs. However, lately I have been running into some things that are frustrating me about it. Mostly when it comes to working with other frameworks for CFC's and throwing in an ORM here and there.

I have been working on an application over the last month or two that I wrote in FB5 and ColdSpring. At first it was fine. Mostly due to the custom lexicons written by Nathan Strutz to instantiate ColdSpring and get beans from the factory right in the XML control file. Then after seeing Mark Mandels Breezo on the Transfer ORM, I decided I wanted to give it a whirl and throw it into the mix. Now this is where things started to get interesting (read aggravating).

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