Hi,
I've heard of Coldfusion being a server side technology for web app dev.
Are there any statistics as to how widely it is used as opposed to PHP, Java Servlets and JSP or ASP.NET?
Are there any special features in coldfusion that make learning it worth the while?
Thanks,
jrh
PS: please don't close this question as argumentative. I'm looking for statistics and real answers. Thanks for understanding.
I work in a CF shop (although, I'm the lone Windows developer.)
I can say looking at the # of jobs available across the country, Java and ASP.Net dwarf CF, 50:1 probably (at least the sites I was looking at.) Not sure about PHP.
One of the great features of CFML is that the language is so easy to learn. At times, it's almost like an extension of HTML. Plus, since it runs on Java, you have access to all of the power of Java.
Its built in integration to things like Exchange Server, LDAP, Java, ORM and SharePoint integration are some of ColdFusion's main appeals to the larger Enterprise market. I once heard an Adobe rep. jokingly say that it was easier to use CF to connect to Exhchange Server than it was with .Net.
Adobe posted some statistics last years stating that there were an estimated almost 800,000 ColdFusion developers worldwide. (see their evangelism kit http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/evangelism_kit/)
Now that there are 2 free open source CFML engines (Open Blue Dragon and Railo), the whole "ColdFusion is too expensive" argument is no longer valid. (and hasn't been for years!)
In terms of determining a language's popularity, the answers to this question may be of interest:
In particular, the website langpop.com gives some interesting statistics. However, it only gives results for C#, not ASP.Net specific figures.
The BuiltWith.com website provides some statistics as to the relative usage of the two technologies, with ASP.Net having 25% and ColdFusion having only 2% share of the websites that the BuiltWith analysed.
PHP is the most widely used. then ASP then CF
1) cold fusion came out before PHP / ASP
2) It has the least learning curve of any. The error output is the best in my opinion.
3) It doesn't have the { ; doesn't use "print"
4) It plays nice with HTML
5) Fewer hosting companies ( due to cost )
It lost to PHP mostly because it is open source.
Allaire sold out to Adobe.
Adobe raised the bar, the price.
Every time Windows makes a change CF must change
Makes it costly for hosting because of software costs.
I find the PHP community to be very forthcoming and can get answers
I find the CF community lacking in support. I can place a question and may never get a reply
When it comes to Apps - PHP is hands down with apps built and freely available.
I'm just a lazy old bird and it has been hard to convert over.
I can write in CF in about 1/3 the time and test immediately and see the error down to the line .
If you need speed to learn = buy CF
If will and you want to learn or have a backgroun in other scripting languages go with PHP
Hope this helps.
Terry