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Inspiring
March 24, 2007
Question

coldfusion fading out?

  • March 24, 2007
  • 25 replies
  • 3114 views
hey,
I personally think coldfusion is fading out since macromedia released flex, even through flex was built on/with (whatever) coldfusion. Do you guys feel the same?

Also, i'm not that good at programming, just starting out, i see so many limitations for coldfusion. Right now, i'm building my 4th big project on coldfusion mx7, so many times i find that i'm unable to do sometihng that other applications can do like nothing. What do you guys suggest for this? Learn new language such as asp.net?

Another question i've is that many people are now converting to flex, whats the reason behind this? Is it easier, faster and better looking codes or something?

Kind a interesting questions i couldnt find answer to.

Thank you,
    This topic has been closed for replies.

    25 replies

    April 6, 2007
    I understand your concern. I can only offer my own perspective, of course.

    I've been using ColdFusion everyday for almost 7 years now, since being hired as a Web Developer at a mid-sized bank. Our commitment to ColdFusion is pretty much total. From where I sit, the CF adoption rate is 100% :-)

    I've been trained in C/C++ and Java programming, and use C# for most of my personal stuff, because I like it and I think it's important to be fluent in more than one language. But for the most part, it's ColdFusion that pays the rent.

    My employer is very pleased with the ROI on ColdFusion, and so considers the cost of the product quite reasonable. The ColdFusion development unit, though relatively small, is considered highly productive and is one of the main "Go To" groups in the company. People from all over the bank come to us with all kinds of technical issues, web-related or not, because we solve problems, and ColdFusion is a cornerstone of our ability to do so.

    A CF developer who lives in or near a major city will not have a problem finding a well-paying job.
    March 29, 2007
    2.5 years old this article but still relevant

    http://www.sitepoint.com/article/making-case-coldfusion
    Inspiring
    March 28, 2007
    Just saw this on another list.

    http://www.sitepoint.com/article/making-case-coldfusion

    The views of a PHP programmer converted to ColdFusion. Just in case
    there is anybody out there who are actually interested in different
    opinions.

    I did find the point that if you wanted the "professional" level of the
    PHP server license that adds many of the features contained in CF it
    costs $1875 very interesting.



    tclaremont
    Inspiring
    March 28, 2007
    What would you call such a forum? "Why ColdFusion sucks?"

    The purpose of a troll is to initiate and contaminate threads or boards with contradictory propoganda or consistently dissenting opinion.

    If there was a dedicated forum for such a person, it would defeat their purpose, and therefore they would not participate. Thus the forum would be empty.

    I have not met anyone who has taken the time to learn ColdFusion that did not like it. It is a very "likeable" platform. But, like anything else, it is not appropriate for every job. Is it right for you? Maybe and maybe not.

    Most short-sighted people cannot get past the fact that a server license is quite expensive compared to other technologies. This is a case where the language is irrelevent if the price of admission keeps people from considering it. The dilemma is that apparently Adobe is making enough money to justify keeping it at the current price point. Good for Adobe. I think that even cutting the price in half would substantially increase sales, but what do I know? And, even if sales increased by ten-fold, would that necessarilly make CF a better choice for someone?

    Like any other debatable subject, you can make an argument for anything. If your stance is in one area, you can rest assured that someone else's stance is in another. Just because we disagree, it does not mean that either one of us is wrong.

    The problem with the classic troll is that the arguments being strewn are, in many cases, patently false. Or, in the best case scenario, are geographically isolated.

    It is hard to tell if ALL of his thinking is conducted this way, or if it is specifically targeted toward his disdain for CF. It is hard to get a feel for his experience with the language, since he never posts a constructive answer that reveals any actual programming ability.

    Bottom line, it is not the argument that is objected to. Whether we agree or not is secondary to the method/skewing/credibility of the same three or four "statistics".

    I must be biased, because I have been using CF for close to a decade, have never had a hard time finding work in CF, and have to turn down additional jobs very freqently. It serves my needs, is easy to maintain, and has provided a very good salary for me for quite some time. How can I argue against that? Can I sit here and claim that the price of a server license is too high? Do I care if the language gets "more" popular?

    Detractors can keep learning the "language of the month" every time a new version trumps the old one, but I just keep on programming in ColdFusion, consistently blowing people away with the speed of development and my ability to "get the job done". I don't read the Tiobe index. I don't keep track of the sales numbers at the book store. I don't count the job postings for every language and compare them. I just keep getting the job done with ColdFusion.

    And at the end of the day, my family eats well, my CEO is quite happy, my employees are productive, and new customers and new job requests come to me daily.

    You keep arguing about questionable or misinterpretted statistics, and I will keep people happy with CF.

    existdissolve
    Inspiring
    March 28, 2007
    Excellent response--I think your post is officially a troll-killer.

    Great job!
    March 27, 2007
    Everyone just quit whining. You can preach all you want to people about what language they should be using but it wont make a slight bit of difference if they are already comfortable using it - it's just wasted breath.

    Personally I like CF because it's right for me and I like the idea that there is another player amongst the popular languages. I also like the fact we're an under dog because it will help the community feel more proud about what we do and push the language to greater levels.

    You only have to look at the number of custom tags, functions and cfcs to realise that the community cares about CF - so much so they are willing to put time in to create new features where Macromedia/Adobe fall behind.

    Enjoy CF, PHP, Java, .NET whatever. If you're really bothered about preaching then it's probably time to do some actual work with the language you so love than sitting on here.

    Writing one line of code you love is way more productive than writing ten lines of text telling someone how good it is, both to yourself, and the people around you.

    Thanks.
    March 28, 2007
    >>You can preach all you want to people about what language they should be using but it wont make a slight bit of difference

    The sad truth is that it makes a lot of difference. Threads like these are rife and common in recent years. I suspect many people have turned away from coldfusion because of opinions and views expressed here. Especially people coming here for advice on language 'A' versus coldfusion, as they are often subjected to some very negative views on what coldfusion is and will be in the future. They promote a negative attitude toward the language and create eough uncertaintainty to affect decisions.

    What we need, I think, is a separate forum for such discussions. This will cut down on the trollish behaviour of certain individuals and possibly help would be newbies to get the info in a better context. By reading through this new forum I suspect they will find answers and not even need to post the language 'A' versus coldfusion questions in the first place!

    While I agree that coldfusion may not be as popular as other platforms, I often wonder why this issue is so important to some? The only time it matters is when the criteria for choosing a web devlopment platform is "must be most popular". Can't say I have come across such criteria before. Coldfusion is popular enough - thats all that matters.

    Lets move these posts to a dedicated forum? How hard could that be to set up?

    Inspiring
    March 26, 2007
    Most of my sites are averaging 30-40% firefox and it has been climbing for 4 years now. I definately think that 10% is an understatement.

    I agree with what Kronin555 said above.
    Inspiring
    March 26, 2007
    "Barely 10%" is definitely an understatement. In the US stats show an across-the-board use of Firefox up to about 14% and continuing to climb with IE falling. Not bad actually considering people have to dislike IE enough to go get something else, when it comes pre-installed on their computer. My site actually is now showing a higher percentage of Firefox users over IE. Last month had 43% Firefox visits versus 33.6% of IE. But not all that surprising considering my target market is developers, cerrtainly a group that loves Firefox in general.
    Inspiring
    March 26, 2007
    Syed, much as I hate that CF has lousy adoption and that is is not used
    enough to make it something profitable for your average developer - it IS a
    good language, lots of fun to use and you may find that there IS some
    demend for it where you are located. Keep at it!

    "Syed Munir Hussain" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> wrote in message
    news:eu7lgh$h3g$1@forums.macromedia.com...
    > thats correct Neo Rye, trying to figure out where the web programming
    > headed
    > and trying to have fun, i'm starting towards programming field, and this
    > is my
    > first language that i've learn a little so far.
    >
    >
    >


    Inspiring
    March 26, 2007
    re: Users are starting to move to Firefox in droves.

    Never known one person to get so much wrong - barely 10% use FireFox.

    re: And what happens to Microsoft when Bill dies?

    Hmmm, does .Net die with Bill?? Becuase thats how it works right - like when
    Henry Ford dies and Ford stopped making cars ... ahng on a minute, you are
    wrong yet again.

    re: You are clearly a .Net and C# guy and a very smart one from what I
    gather.

    Not that smart at all. Seem to get more right answers than you though.

    re: I don't think you can make any 5 year predictions when
    talking about the web.

    Kind of can actually - its pretty simple. CF costs a fortune when it offers
    nothing above and beyond what you can get without the fortune. It'll never
    be used by a significant number of developers and it will always be the one
    they tak about around the water coller - "Coldfusion, isn't that dead?" - "
    No, I heard this guy who knows a guy who has a pal that said he heard that
    somebody used it just last year to build an app" - "did you know it had
    magical tags and that hardly anybody knows it, but cf aps can be built soooo
    fast and no other scripting language has figured out how they do it yet!!"


    Sorry - some things are easy to predict. Just as 5 years ago many predicted
    they would be leaving CF in droves and it barely be used or considered by
    many. It's just as easy to predict more of the same for the next 5 years.

    Allaire should have open sourced it and made it into what PHP is today. Too
    late - the "mega corportaions" got their hands on it and lost to the other
    mega corporations with the bigger budgets and superior products.





    "Neo Rye" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> wrote in message
    news:eu7l5d$gn0$1@forums.macromedia.com...
    > SliceOfLife - AKA Chris Becker,
    >
    > And look at what that mega-corporation did with the web browser in IE7.
    > Most
    > of my Microsoft developer friends hate using it, but are forced to. It's
    > sooo
    > bloated! Users are starting to move to Firefox in droves. Is that the
    > future of
    > .Net? And what happens to Microsoft when Bill dies? When Google starts
    > sucking
    > the cash from their cow? I don't think you can make any 5 year predictions
    > when
    > talking about the web.
    >
    > You are clearly a .Net and C# guy and a very smart one from what I gather.
    > This forum seems almost... well, I'm not sure why you're here. Do you get
    > paid
    > to post or are you just bored? Have you ever written a commercial
    > ColdFusion
    > App?
    >
    > If Syed was working on his masters degree in computer science, like others
    > here, I'd recommend Java and .jsp over .Net anyway, but he said "I'm not
    > that
    > good at programming", so Adobe and ColdFusion is as good a place to start
    > as
    > any.
    >
    > Check out their labs.adobe.com and all the tools they are working on to
    > make
    > developing for the web fun and exciting.
    >


    Inspiring
    March 26, 2007
    quote:

    Sorry - some things are easy to predict. Just as 5 years ago many predicted
    they would be leaving CF in droves and it barely be used or considered by
    many. It's just as easy to predict more of the same for the next 5 years.


    I'm not sure where you are getting your information...or more likely, that you just are making it up as you go. But there is no evidence whatsoever of developers leaving CF "in droves". Perhaps you think Adobe is lying when they say sales continue to be strong for ColdFusion? Or that the CFUNITED folks are blowing smoke when they tell us the number of people coming is rising every year? The fact that it is so widely used in the government, a sector not known for rapidly changing to other technologies, is a good indication that it will be around for years to come. I can also add my own experience, my sales continue to do well every year, in spite of new ecommerce products coming out for ColdFusion regularly and adding more competition to the market. Developers love how easy it is to take a well-written CF shopping cart and modify it for their own needs...I actually have had more than a few that switch from other technologies like PHP over to CF for this very reason.

    We've been hearing this crap about "CF is dying" pretty much ever since PHP and ASP first came out, and it hasn't happened or shown any sign that it is going to happen. Those that use CF understand how much value and ROI you truly get for the price and will continue to support it.


    splitzerAuthor
    Inspiring
    March 26, 2007
    thats correct Neo Rye, trying to figure out where the web programming headed and trying to have fun, i'm starting towards programming field, and this is my first language that i've learn a little so far.

    Inspiring
    March 26, 2007
    SliceOfLife - AKA Chris Becker,

    And look at what that mega-corporation did with the web browser in IE7. Most of my Microsoft developer friends hate using it, but are forced to. It's sooo bloated! Users are starting to move to Firefox in droves. Is that the future of .Net? And what happens to Microsoft when Bill dies? When Google starts sucking the cash from their cow? I don't think you can make any 5 year predictions when talking about the web.

    You are clearly a .Net and C# guy and a very smart one from what I gather. This forum seems almost... well, I'm not sure why you're here. Do you get paid to post or are you just bored? Have you ever written a commercial ColdFusion App?

    If Syed was working on his masters degree in computer science, like others here, I'd recommend Java and .jsp over .Net anyway, but he said "I'm not that good at programming", so Adobe and ColdFusion is as good a place to start as any.

    Check out their labs.adobe.com and all the tools they are working on to make developing for the web fun and exciting.