client end-user requirements

rolaaus wrote:
> PaulH wrote:
> > Beyond a basic browser, no. the rest depends on what you use for
> > the UI: flash and/or javascript
>
> Is it possible to not use Flash or Java for the UI so that there is nothing
> needed to be downloaded?
>
> My impression of Cold Fusion is that it's a Markup Language, and because it is
> a markup language that is not "open" like HTML, then Adobe needed to make the
> server based software in order to interpret the markup commands/language. If
> this is correct, then I'm assuming the 'standard' pages (not Java/Flash) is
> just like an HTML page (in other words, nothing but text), but I'm just now
> going to download the dev edition and give it a go, so I may be wrong about
> this.
>

ColdFusion is an application server, now written in Java -- previous to
CFMX 6.0 it was C++. CFML is a markup-like language to write the
applications in. The CFML standard is open and Adobe nee Macromedia nee
Allair is no longer the only place where one can get an "CFML
Inerpreter". New Atlanta's Blue Dragon is the oldest alternative, but
there are new players on the field including some 'open source' projects
such as the SMITH project.

The result of an CFML application can be HTML -- which is the oldest use
of ColdFusion. But to keep up with modern tastes in web application
development, it can now do much more. As well as HTML, it can do any
type of plain text output from .txt files to XML. It can now also do
binary output such as PDF, FlashPaper, JPG, GIF and TIFF files.

ColdFusion also contains a great deal of functionality to connect
various systems together to gather and|or store the desired information
to be output in the above formats. Databases of course, but also
web-services, LDAP servers, FTP servers, file servers, etc.

The latest version also includes helpful functionality to make creating
'Web 2.0' type applications with tags that easily make creating DHTML,
AJAX or simple Flex interfaces as well as easily tying into full blown
Flex front ends to become the middle-ware to the above mentioned back
end resources.

PaulH wrote:
> Beyond a basic browser, no. the rest depends on what you use for
> the UI: flash and/or javascript

Is it possible to not use Flash or Java for the UI so that there is nothing needed to be downloaded?

My impression of Cold Fusion is that it's a Markup Language, and because it is a markup language that is not "open" like HTML, then Adobe needed to make the server based software in order to interpret the markup commands/language. If this is correct, then I'm assuming the 'standard' pages (not Java/Flash) is just like an HTML page (in other words, nothing but text), but I'm just now going to download the dev edition and give it a go, so I may be wrong about this.

rolaaus wrote:
> I am wondering if there are any end-user requirements for solutions built on
> ColdFusion?

beyond a basic browser, no. the rest depends on what you use for the UI: flash
and/or javascript.

> I am wanting to build a web-based application and need some help on which is
> the best tool for this, and if there are any hosts out there that have a free
> account for either trial period or for development only.

cf has a free dev edition you can use to develop applications on a local box. if
you don't want to bother w/web server s/w, it also comes with one.