On Fri, Nov 03, 2000 at 10:38:36AM -0500, Vanderhoof, Tzadik wrote:
> I agree that there definitely needs to be some kind of "Web app package" for
> Perl that puts everything together that you need.
>
> Also, at the risk of being a broken record, I'm still waiting for a document
> that does a point-by-point comparison between Perl and ColdFusion solely in
> the domain of Web app development. I think Perl would compare favorably,
> even though ColdFusion is useable only in that one domain and Perl is much
> more broad, but I don't have any evidence to support this feeling.
Well, for a start, here's CF's list of features according to Allaire:
http://www.allaire.com/handlers/index.cfm?ID=13488&Method=Full&Title=ColdFusion%204%2E5%20Features&Cache=False
It seems to focus largely on the GUI/WIMP/IDE facilities, which would be
hard to compare against. Here's what they say about the language
itself:
| Tag-Based Server Scripting
|
| ColdFusion 4.5 provides a powerful, comprehensive
| server-side scripting language(CFML) with a tag-based
| syntax that cleanly integrates with HTML and XML.
|
| Process Encapsulation - Access any of the servers
| integrated with ColdFusion, including database, email,
| directory, Web, and file servers with straightforward CFML
| tags.
|
| Extended Scripting - Use traditional scripting syntax for
| complex data processing on the server.
|
| Structured Exception Handling - Trap and handle error
| messages in CFML pages that are caused by failed queries or
| other possible errors.
|
| Variable Manipulation - Create and manipulate variables
| within dynamic pages. Pass variables between pages and
| create browser cookies. Manage server, application, session,
| and client level data transparently.
|
| Rich Function Library - Access more than 200 functions
| for evaluating text strings, dates, times, lists, queries, and
| mathematical expressions. Use locale functions for accurate
| date and time formats worldwide.
|
| Regular Expressions - Use regular expressions for pattern
| matching, searching, and replacing complex text strings.
|
| Arrays and Structures - Create and manipulate
| n-dimensional arrays and structures (associative arrays) for
| sophisticated application logic and more manageable code.
|
| Dynamic Page Flow Control - Control the content of
| dynamic pages with conditional statements (if?elseif?else
| branching) that can use full Boolean operators (AND, OR,
| NOT, etc.) as well as CASE statements. Control application
| logic and execution with looping.
|
| Code Reuse - Include pages within other pages to reuse
| complex code, formats, or functions throughout an
| application and create reusable components with ColdFusion
| Extensions (CFX).
|
| Object Scripting* - Instantiate and script objects using
| CFML script in addition to the CFOBJECT tag for easier
| integration with distributed object middleware, such as COM
| and CORBA.
|
| Structured Exception Handling* - Take advantage of new
| hierarchical exception handling for greater customization and
| access to internal exceptions.
|
| String Conversion Functions* - Convert strings quickly
| and easily to meet JavaScript and XML standards.
K.
--
Kirrily 'Skud' Robert - [EMAIL PROTECTED] - http://infotrope.net/
Non-linear, far from equilibrium, and strangely attractive...
