Confusing execution sequence in Custom tag

Question

I have a custom tag file with the name make_red.cfm that
makes a text passed to it to the color red.
The calling code looks like this:
Main page<br>
<cf_make_red result="myVar">
Dont mess with the Zohan!!!
</cf_make_red>
back to the main page<br>
The code in make_red.cfm looks something like this:
<cfoutput>
<hr>
ThisTag.ExecutionMode is #ThisTag.ExecutionMode#<br>
ThisTag.GeneratedContent is
#ThisTag.GeneratedContent#<br>
<hr>
<cfif ThisTag.ExecutionMode IS "Start">
Tag start<br>
<cfif structkeyexists(attributes,"result")>
<cfset evaluate("caller.#attributes.result# =
""CUSTOM_TAG_COMPLETED""")>
</cfif>
Tag processing<br>
<cfelseif ThisTag.ExecutionMode IS "End">
Tag processed<br>
<cfset ThisTag.GeneratedContent = "<font
color=""red"">"&ThisTag.GeneratedContent&"</font><br>">
The tag ends here<br>
</cfif>
</cfoutput>
The output looks like this:
Main page
ThisTag.ExecutionMode is start
ThisTag.GeneratedContent is
Tag start
Tag processing
Dont mess with the Zohan!!!
ThisTag.ExecutionMode is end
ThisTag.GeneratedContent is Dont mess with the Zohan!!!
Tag processed
The tag ends here
back to main page
My question is this:
As per the sequence of the statements in the custom tag code,
the text that appears in the beginning of tag file will be printed
after which the processing for the end tag happens in the
<cfif>. The text passed between the <cf_make_red> and
</cf_make_red> i.e. "Dont mess with the Zohan!!!" appears to
be printing before the end tag executes.
Shouldnt the text passed between the <cf_make_red> and
</cf_make_red> come after the end tag is processed? Because
thats where i am making the text red.
Could someone please explain this?

Answer 1

Doing a little more experimentation, I discovered that pageContext is null in the constructor, but not null in the otherDoStartTagOperations() method (called by the doStartTag() method of the tag's class... it's something Forte forces you to do).
Is this normal? I was under the impression that pageContext is supposed to be defined EVERYWHERE in any class that extends BodyTagSupport... including the class' own constructor.
On a related topic, is there documentation somewhere as to what, exactly, Forte is doing behind the scenes when it's managing a taglib (how it keeps track of them, where it puts config files, how the entries it makes in them are different or extended from the normal layout, etc.)? At the moment, I suspect that half of the grief I'm having with writing taglibs is caused by Forte itself forcing me to do things in a roundabout way that bears little resemblance to the ways shown in different books on the topic (and in fact all but ensures that nearly every published example will fail and require major rewriting because of the way it forces tag classes to be structured), but I don't see any easy way to let Forte handle compiling the classes and testing them with its embedded Tomcat, but do the config file housekeeping myself I can be in control of it.