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.