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ColdFusion versus

  • ASP
  • Have you got any comparisons of ColdFusion and similar server-side scripting languages?
  • iHTML
  • PHP

    • Beginner

    ASP

    Take a look at this HoF article.

    While ASP is great for complex programming tasks, it is awkward and unwieldy for simple tasks such as merely presenting data from a database.

    And CF actually looks fun to use! It has a good structured development environment (CF Studio) which is where ASP sorely falls short - although there are rumours that MM Ultradev will go some way to resolving this.

    I first developed web apps in ASP but soon discovered CF. But I was one of those who came from a programming background -- 10+ years in VB, C, RPG, and COBOL. I gladly embraced CF for something that none of these other languages offer: simplicity and speed of development. Having coded CF full-time now for over three years I have yet to encounter a situation where I wished I was back in ASP-land. Plus I have never encountered a language where it is easier than CF to decipher and understand code written by someone else -- even bad code.

    Also, CFQUERY sure beats all that ADO code.

    to question

    Have you got any comparisons of ColdFusion and similar server-side scripting languages?

    Comparison of ASP, CF, Perl, JSP
    http://www.teratech.com/teratech/custom/asp.cfm

    An the answer of Why chose CF over ASP, PHP, JSP or PERL?
    CF author and CFConf speaker John Paul Ashenfelter explains in Fun with ColdFusion written for Webreview .
    http://www.webreview.com/2000/09_01/developers/09_01_00_1.shtml

    to question

    iHTML

    The cons of iHTML

    • iHTML runs in the address space of the web server (not as a separate service). So, iHTML would be more prone to taking down a web server than CF.
    • iHTML does not support COM (not sure if it supports CORBA but I doubt it).
    • iHTML does not have native clustering.
    • iHTML does not support template encryption.
    • Custom tags are almost non-existant. iHTML supports extensions (iHTX) but there are no good examples from Inline nor is there a Developers Exchange where you can acquire custom tags. There is a code exchange of sorts, though.

    The pros

    • Multi-platform support (Windows, Unix)
    • Devoted community (like the CF community)
    • You get questions answered directly from the iHTML developers consistently (Inline).
    • Strong motivation by Inline to support free and open standards (Open ODBC, MySQL, etc.)
    • Less pricey than CF.

    to question

    PHP

    http://www.zdnet.com/enterprise/stories/linux/0,12249,2646052,00.html
    http://www.zdnet.com/eweek/stories/general/0,11011,2646051,00.html
    http://php.weblogs.com/php_vs_cold_fusion

    to question