> Hey everyone, > > My boss here at work wants me to learn a new programming language for web > development, as she no longer wants to support ColdFusion :-( > I think that I will want to learn either ASP, PHP, JSP, or Perl. All I know > about each of them is that ASP is only on Windows, PHP is for both Windows > and Linux, JSP is based on Java, and Perl is not tag-based, but it is still > widely used. Which ones do you use, and which would you recommend for me to > learn, and why?
ASP isn't *only* Windows. There are 3rd party apps, such as Chilisoft!ASP that will allow ASP to run on Linux, etc. I don't know about PHP running on Windows, but I know there is a little proggie in most Linux distros that will convert PHP code to ASP code. JSP is based on Java kinda like ASP is based on VB. Perl is indeed not tag based, but then again, neither is ASP nor JSP. Perl is also mostly used in the traditional CGI style programming. I'm currently learning JSP. CF 6 will be "Java" based and built around JRun, to some extent, from what I understand. CF 6 will also still accept "normal" CF coding. If you want to hold out hopes for returning to CF, learn JSP and convince her to get CF 6 and then you can code in either JSP, or CF. If you want to go with the status quo, learn ASP .. specifically, ASPX (part of Microsoft's .NET stuff). If you want to cater to Linux developers, go with PHP and maybe Perl, though Perl would be at the bottom of my list. Best bet .. learn them all, if you have time :) I would still start with JSP though. The syntax is kinda like ASP (more than anything else) and you can expand from it to full Java, which is an attractive buzzword these days. Before going through all that trouble though, a good idea might be to find out why she doesn't want to support CF any longer. Her decision may be based on misinformation. My company is, primarily, an MS training and certification facility. We are MS all the way ... except for our web development stuff. In that area, we are 80% CF 10% JSP and 10% .NET. Little MS at all. The 10% JSP is just R&D for when NEO comes out and the 10% .NET is "just in case we might want to expand in to that area/just in case" sort of thing. The 3rd/4th/5th (sorry, not privy to the actual numbers) largest MS CTEC in the US deciding on CF as its web dev app of choice says a little about the merrits of CF, no? ;) Todd > Thanks! > -Brent ______________________________________________________________________ Macromedia ColdFusion 5 Training from the Source Step by Step ColdFusion http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0201758474/houseoffusion Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
