That's a key distinction between CF and several of the languages that it is compared to. Ruby, Perl, Python and C# are all general purpose programming languages. Even PHP, which is primarily used as a Web application language, can be used as a general purpose language. But where CF lacks specific capabilities as a general purpose language, it has capabilities as a Web language/platform that other languages lack, e.g. built-in Flash Remoting for integration with RemoteObject calls in Flex, the cfquery tag (which to this day I am amazed that every other language hasn't copied), and integration with PDF (BTW, I was a skeptic of the value of PDF integration, but it is amazing how useful that feature can be).
As for learning Ruby as glue, it can't hurt. You could pick Ruby, Python, Windows Script Host, or several other languages. I like Ruby and Python because they are platform-independent. Of course, there is always Java, which is more widely used than anything else and compliments CF nicely. You can even run Java from the command line (though not as nimbly as Ruby), though I would argue that what is in effect shell scripting has a limited utility for application developers in a production environment. It is more the province of system administrators. For someone who runs their own infrastructure, I would definitely recommend picking up at least one of these languages. On 10/3/07, Zaphod Beeblebrox wrote: > > > > There really are a lot of things that ruby can do that CF can't. A > lot of it stems from the fact that CF is really only a web application > language whereas ruby is general purpose. > -- --------------- Robert Munn www.emergentpath.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Get involved in the latest ColdFusion discussions, product development sharing, and articles on the Adobe Labs wiki. http://labs/adobe.com/wiki/index.php/ColdFusion_8 Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:243617 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
