> In Adam's defense, I think many of us have had the same > suspicion. The number of shared hosting providers offering > ColdFusion support has hardly increased. At least by my > observation. In addition, it is not everyday (or week for > that matter) that I come across a website that is using > ColdFusion. However, I couldn't count how many times I come > across PHP websites. There is a subtle increase in the number > of open source projects for ColdFusion, but most of them are > by the same people who have been contributing to the > community for years (Camden, Helms, Woodward, Farrell, etc.). > ASP.NET and PHP are being taught on community and university > campuses in increasing numbers. At my community college, they > just dropped the ColdFusion class in favor of ASP.NET. > > I have no idea what the future holds for ColdFusion, but the > fact that these discussion keep coming up reveals that Adam > is not the only one from within the community who has a > sneaking suspicion that ColdFusion is not doing as well as we > would like. Not to say that it is doing bad, but that it is > not competing with alternatives such as Ruby, PHP and ASP.NET > (all of which are free by the way).
None of this is really any different than it ever has been, though. ColdFusion is not as big a player in the shared hosting space. On the other hand, very few large businesses rely on PHP or Ruby. Open source CF projects have never been popular, because if you can afford to buy CF you can afford to buy custom programming. And I come across CF web sites all the time; out of the online bill payment systems I use, about a third are CF-driven! (None use ASP.NET; the rest use Java.) "ColdFusion is dying" has been a perennial subject on this list since CF 3 or so. And it's still here. But it's silly to talk about it, especially if you can't do anything about it anyway, which was the gist of Adam's post. And, for everyone touting how great ASP.NET is, or XAML/WPF is, and how it's going to take over the world, I'd like you to point to any Microsoft development environment that's existed for ten years, other than Visual C++. Dave Watts, CTO, Fig Leaf Software http://www.figleaf.com/ Fig Leaf Software provides the highest caliber vendor-authorized instruction at our training centers in Washington DC, Atlanta, Chicago, Baltimore, Northern Virginia, or on-site at your location. Visit http://training.figleaf.com/ for more information! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Introducing the Fusion Authority Quarterly Update. 80 pages of hard-hitting, up-to-date ColdFusion information by your peers, delivered to your door four times a year. http://www.fusionauthority.com/quarterly Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:262347 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
