This is what I sent my immediate manager..we're very informal in our
relationship , so don't think I'm going to get fired tomorrow or anything (I
hope) hee hee hee :)
It was orignally in HTML format though..with Horizontal rules, and bold and
colored text to make things stand out.
Regressing to Plaint Text has made it a lot more difficult to read I'm
afraid :-\
Of course I left out a lot of stuff, and it wasn't entirely impartial lol
lol :)
But I was trying to get a point across.
In Trinidad and several other islands, development is almost solely in ASP,
and companies are only now starting to get wind of Cold Fusion.
Now, because Oracle is pushing its .jsp and Java integration, these are
becoming buzz words as well, without management or even the developers
really knowing about these technologies or how to implement them.
Coldfusion is seen as a jokey little language that non programmers use.
Even though I produced two scripts in CF that was used wholly and solely to
normalise the financial data sent to us by a Bank.
If that wasn't programming then I don't know what is! I could have used
MSAccess and VB, but I specifically did it IN Coldfusion to prove a
point..and the point seems to have slipped neatly above the heads of those
'in charge' of the tools and the money spent on those tools.
They're just going with the buzz.
And despite the fact that in all the magazines and comparisons that I see
done independently, Allaire CF beats the rest, it just isn't making
inroads...it isn't becoming BUZZ worthy..
and I just can't freaking understand why...and its frustrating.
Because I know the language, I know its potential..I see where it is
going...and no one else around here does.
I'm starting to think that mayhap it be time to move on :)
-Gel
------------------------------------------
What are our priorities for development?
1) Rapid Application Development
2) Ease Of Use
3) A complete,full featured, mature API.
4) Timely customer support
5) Professionalism in the eyes of the customer.
"With our priorities of speedy development, ease of use, and a complete and
powerful API, ColdFusion really stood out. "
"ColdFusion server professional 4.5.1 is our top overall choice for
script-based Web application development. It provides a rich API combined
with the easiest programming language and the best administration,
performance monitoring, development and debugging tools we tested. It also
runs on several platforms and has strong back-end data connectivity. "
This is from the most well known indepednent comparison of the above listed
languages that was done late last year. IT was carried out by the developers
at ZDNET's Eweek, well known and respected for producing unbiased product
reviews.
"JSP is a relatively new technology and still has clear market immaturities
in terms of tools, support resources and available talent. "
Hmm...that doesn't seem to meet any of our requirements for Rapid
Application Development does it.....
"Because JSP is based on Java, a strongly typed language, we had to declare
the types of variables we used and manually convert between types when
necessary. This makes JSP the hardest of the scripting languages we tested
for nonprogrammers to learn, although anyone who knows some Java will figure
out JSP almost immediately. "
Do any of the programmers in the office that will be working on this B2B
project know Java inside out?
I don't think so.
"The ColdFusion site running on a Windows 2000 test server had a speed of
about 29 pages per second."
"On a test Linux server, Tomcat had a speed of about 13 pages per second"
"because a just-emerging JSP extension called tag libraries lets JSP mimic
ColdFusion's tag-style API, we think JSP is going to be a core Web scripting
language in a few years. "
I see..so SUN is trying to copycat Cold Fusion's style of using tag
libraries etc. , and in a few years they might get it right.....
but we don't want to use Cold Fusion the product they are trying to
copy...why?
because we want to be ready next "few years" when people REALLY start using
..jsp and it matures?
So we're eschewing a Mature, Robust product that will do the job and do it
very capably..to ride the bleeding edge of development, with immature
toolsets, and poor support?
These aren't my words..these were written and compiled by people with
degrees, and PHDs who ahve been in this business far longer than I.
In my mind there is absolutely no valid reason to use .jsp over Coldfusion
for this major project.
THe argument that we need to "expand our horizons"...
How many of us know .jsp? None.
How many of us know CF? Me..
So wouldn't having the other programmers learn Coldfusion be 'expanding
their horizons' as well?
In addition to meeting our requirements for RAD, and having a mature tool to
use with clear support paths? IF we run into a problem with integrating
Java/.jsp/Oracle who we gonna call?
SUN Microsystems?
Are any of our programmers tied into a .JSP community for a year or more
that they can draw on for support?
What development tools are we going to use?
JBuilder?
That tool is poor when compared to Coldfusion Studio, even Stacy said so
when she was asked and she has attempted to use the tool before.
If we are going to use .jsp, at least use a toolset and a development
environment that is modern, and that was built for RAD and web application
development like JRun and KAWA or something ya know??
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
Now when you couple this with the fact that CF has a very clear and well
defined upgrade and support path, and are developing Coldfusion 5.0 that
will provide On The Fly page rendering, so you don't have to wait for a page
to finish processing before data is produced, User Defined Functions..here's
a short list:
Examine ColdFusion Server performance statistics over a period of time.
The Performance Summary report offers cumulative averages for all the server
statistics in a given time period. You can choose to view one of four
different time intervals: monthly, weekly, daily and hourly. Other
performance reports that are available in which you can view specific
statistics about include: Requests, Database Operations, Cache Pops, Queued
Requests, Requests in Process, Time Out requests, and Throughput.
Track ColdFusion Server configuration changes as they occur.
The Settings Change Log report identifies all configuration modifications in
the selected time period including the old and new values for all such
changes. This report helps you pinpoint when changes occurred and how these
changes might have affected the behavior of the ColdFusion Server.
Identify all current configuration settings from one view.
The Settings Summary report lists all the current server configuration
settings that you can print or otherwise capture for future use.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
High availability controls
The monitoring and site management features provided with ColdFusion 5.0
enable you to effectively monitor resources in your Web site, be informed
when critical events occur, and control the distribution of HTTP traffic
hitting your Web sites. For more information about these new features, see
the following ColdFusion 5.0 Administrator online Help topics:
Understanding ColdFusion Probes
Setting Server Thresholds
Adding and Configuring a Probe
Event Notifications
Specifying Alarm Recipients
Adding a Third-party Load Balancing device
Viewing the Web Site Configuration
Managed data is now accessible in ColdFusion 5.0 through the Simple Network
Management Protocol (SNMP) Management Information Base (MIB) for Advanced
ColdFusion Application Management services. You can now easily integrate
this information with your third-party system management tools like HP Open
View. These tools, like HP Open View, provide a way for you to manage
diverse components about your enterprise from any managed site in your
network.
Can we offer our customers such an integrated solution with .jsp? No.
Maybe in a few years....eh?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
One of the more powerful features introduced with ColdFusion Server 5.0 is
the ability to perform queries against query result sets. The query of query
feature can substantially improve real performance, as well as apparent
performance, in ColdFusion applications that conduct large-scale database
queries. The query of queries feature currently supports a subset of the SQL
92 Standard.
Advantages of querying a query
There are many benefits to having in-memory manipulation of queries.
Database access time is greatly reduced since result sets are manipulated
using SQL in the ColdFusion Server process rather than through a database
connection. Results from disparate data sources can be joined. You can
manipulate cached query results, further increasing the efficiency of the
cached query. You can achieve cursor-like functionality without maintaining
a connection to the backend. Filtering, grouping, and aggregating using
ColdFusion is faster than the comparable query action in the database since
the table is already in memory.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
The cftextinput, cfslider, cftree, and cfgrid tags are completely rewritten
to improve their overall quality and maintainability. The implementation,
packaging, delivery, and security model of the controls changed. As a result
of this work, the controls run more consistently in various Java
environments.
, cfgraph and cfgraphdata to generate dynamic charts and graphs in either
Flash, GIF, or JPG format from various data sources, including database
query results, hard-coded data, variables, and other data. Using the cfgraph
and cfgraphdata tags, you can build charts and graphs in bar, line, and pie
formats. For detailed instructions on the three formats, click on any of the
following links:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
ColdFusion 5.0 for Windows and Linux now features automatic footprint
reduction to minimize the amount of memory used by the ColdFusion 5.0 Server
on these platforms. ColdFusion 5.0 dynamically releases unused memory back
to the operating system to minimize its process footprint. Customers with
Web applications that occasionally use very large blocks of memory will see
this memory returned to the operating system when the operation is complete.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
Enhanced Java Interface
ColdFusion 5.0 uses a custom class loader to load Java class files. Java
developers can now change Java classes without restarting ColdFusion each
time. With this change, the concept of a dynamic class load path is
introduced. ColdFusion assumes this path to be the same as the CFX path. It
is in the directory where the cfx.jar and javarunner.jar files are placed.
ColdFusion monitors this directory for class file time stamp changes. For
example, if the Java class "FooBar.class" is placed in that directory. Each
time an object of "FooBar" class is loaded, the class file is checked for
updates. Changes are incorporated immediately
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
You can now use CFScript to define custom functions for frequently used
algorithms or procedures. This lets you write code once and use it many
times in your pages. Custom functions are generally faster than equivalent
custom tags and provide the convenience of return values. You can call
custom functions anywhere that you can use a ColdFusion expression, such as
in tag attributes, between # signs in output, and in CFScript code. You can
pass a function name as an argument to another function.
You can define a custom function within a CFScript tag in any template. The
definition must be visible when you call the custom function.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
ColdFusion 5 upgrades its searching capabilities with the inclusion of
Verity VDK 2.6.1. KeyView Filters 6.5.4 supports indexing and viewing
documents storied in many popular desktop publishing, word processing, and
presentation formats. For more information, refer to the Verity Web site at
(http://www.verity.com/products/devokit/index.html).
Yes..this means you can actually perform SERVER SIDE SEARCHES on .ppt
presentations, .pdf files, Word Documents, Excel documents etc. RIGHT OUT
THE BOX with Coldfusion....can you think of uses for this for the ICSC
application? This is available in CF4.5 right now actually..
Can you do that with .jsp?
Umm....nope. :-)
Can you do it with ASP? Yep..if you install Index Server..and SIte
Minder..and then get them to talk to each other with IIS5..and and...
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
Coldfusion 6, due late 2001 or early 2002 is going to take CFML code, and
converting it to .jsp ANYWAYS..so the skills used now, will be converted, if
you like, to .jsp by early next year.
You also have the strong integration between Coldfusion and FLASH, how
important is FLASH for websites nowadays?
Macromedia has merged with Allaire..so you have the Premier provider of
Graphical Interaction on the web, teamed with the Premier provider of
DATABASE interaction on the web...Does this not seem like a good thing?
Does SUN and .jsp have any of these powerful ties and buy ins?
You can actually write data to a database through a Flash control, and
display data from a database through a flash control using CF.
Can any of our staff do that with .jsp?
Nope.
Anyways..if you've reached this far I've said enough.
I just don't think that .jsp is the right tool for this job, and I strongly
believe the reasons for wanting to use .jsp for this job has absolutely
nothing to do with it being 'more suited'.
The other programmers involved in this project aren't even aware of the
premier tool for doing .jsp and JAVA design right now which is KAWA.
But we gonna finish this project in a month or just a little more?
If we're gonna learn a language..fine..say we are going to learn a language.
But learning a language to produce a product that we want to sell to
customers, when we have something else that can do it faster and better just
doesn't make sense to me.
We'll be fighting ourselves trying to sort out problems that the customers
are having, instead of simply responding to their needs and delivering a
robust product that we can readily support.
We will be needing support ourselves during the customers implementation
life cycle, and thats not a good thing, nor is it necessary in this
instance.
So why do it?
We have dozens of shopping carts and ordering systems that we can get and
modify with Coldfusion, we have literally HUNDREDS of custom tags that can
be used to enhance web pages and user input with our products...We have a
vibrant and rapidly growing developer community with Cold Fusion...
where are the similar resources for .jsp?
They don't exist,we'll have to do it all ourselves from scratch:
"JSP is a relatively new technology and still has clear market immaturities
in terms of tools, support resources and available talent"
That said, I have no problem with learning .jsp and being involved in the
development aspect of this project.
I just don't see the need to frustrate myself with trying to produce
something in some kind of timeframe using the wrong development environment
for the job to satisfy..I don't know what really :-)
I just would like to state for the record that it is my opinion that if we
do use .jsp for this project, we will miss the deadline of a month we set
for ourselves, by at least another month or more.
The only chance we have of creating a robust,customised B2B application in a
short timeframe, sticking with our RAD focus, is Cold Fusion.
If we have no timeframe and the rest of the year to get this thing
right,including a very understanding customer who doesn't mind the fact that
we are now learning the programming tools we are using to build the service
we are offering, then that is a different story of course.
http://www.zdnet.com/enterprise/stories/linux/0,12249,2646052,00.html
-Gel
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Structure your ColdFusion code with Fusebox. Get the official book at
http://www.fusionauthority.com/bkinfo.cfm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Structure your ColdFusion code with Fusebox. Get the official book at
http://www.fusionauthority.com/bkinfo.cfm
Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
