ColdFusion

Well I have been working for a new company now for almost a month. Part of the job requirements were for me to learn how to program web applications using Adobe's ColdFusion. So far I have to say that in just a few weeks I can now develop database driven applications with AJAX components. Not bad.

My initial thoughts were that I would hate programming in ColdFusion. But after building my first mini application and redesigning their commercial website using ColdFusion components, I am quite impressed.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with ColdFusion, it was one of the first application servers to allow developers to provide dynamic content using back end databases. It is very similar to Microsoft's ASP.net, Java Server Pages and PHP. It has a simple syntax that is similar to HTML and provides for ease of use programming. The latest version, version 8, has built in functionality for AJAX or dynamic interaction components, like popup windows, dynamic menus, and pods. Find more information about ColdFusion at wikipedia.

I am mid/senior level programmer using ASP / PHP, so learning ColdFusion has not been much of a challenge, not to mention it has been kind of fun. It is like driving a 10 year old Camry your whole life because of costs and then getting to see what it is like to drive a Cadillac. Not that I am comparing ColdFusion to a Cadillac, but it is nice to use a for profit application server that has quite a bit of built in functionality that does a bunch of work for the developer. But with every tool, there are pros and cons. The biggest con in this instance is the fact that ColdFusion is not cheap.

If you are interested in taking it for a test drive, Adobe has made available a development version of ColdFusion that is free to install and use. You have all the bells and whistles of the full blown version, except it is for development use. I recommend that if you have the resources to go with ColdFusion in a production environment, then you should definitely consider it as an option. It is powerful, easy and robust.

HowTo: Get Files From Mac OS X Leopard to Windows Vista

I started new work this passed week and the machine provided to me had no music on it what so ever, so I brought in my personal laptop. I have never attempted to copy data from Mac OS X Leopard to Vista before so it took me a little bit to find a method that worked. This is what I did:

1. On your Mac: System Preferences --> Sharing.
2. Check the box that says File Sharing.
3. Click options, I enabled FTP.
4. Make sure you have the permissions setup for your user account to read & write, as well as a password.
5. I used FileZilla, but you can use any ftp client.
6. Type into the host field the ip address of your Mac OS X computer.
7. Then for the username and password, use the same ones that you use to login to your Mac.
8. Once connected you are good to go. Download or upload as many files as necessary.

Hope this helps.

chris

Twitter Abandoning Rails? Is RoR Destined for Non-Enterprise Apps?

Ruby on Rails has gained in popularity since its creation by David Heinemeier Hansson back in 2004. It proved to be an intuitive web development framework. But in the last few years, critics have come to believe that RoR is incapable of powering enterprise level applications.

It appears that there may be some current rumors that would back up this claim. TechChrunch posted on May 1st that "Twitter is Said to be Abandoning Ruby on Rails". Twitter has been having quite a bit of performance issues as of late. It is probable that the poor performance can be narrowed down to increase in popularity and companies creating twitter accounts and spamming users to boost traffic. I hope that this is not the image that is perceived for our Property Stampede twitter account.

GigaOm recently posted that Ruby on Rails will be getting some Enterprise-Level Support. Benchmark Capital is in investing $3.5 million in New Relic Inc, which plans to use the funds to incubate RoR to a Enterprise-Level framework. It should be interesting, but I am rather skeptic. Lew Cirne hopes to boost the adoption of RoR like he did with Java, but Java had the support of Sun and IBM, which RoR is growing without any corporate support. It should be interesting none the less.

Chris