Hi Adam! I dream reality. We all do. Our perception of it is as powerful as whatever it, in fact, is. :)
I proclaim "CFML is worth sharing!". What you see as fragmentation, I see as coalescentation. What you see as an attempt to tear down, I see as an attempt to build up. We'll have to put all our data together now, to see the numbers, I reckon. Working in a big corporation can suck. I hate all the politics and whatnot that seems to come with the territory. Having to *repeatedly* show folks what is quite obviously good logic, instead of them just getting it the first time. I honestly think that the open source engines can be leveraged to make more money for Adobe than Adobe would have made otherwise, and in turn, make more money for CFML devs that we would have made otherwise. I don't want to see tons of jobs with low wages-- nobody at our diner because there's too many people there, so to speak-- but I wouldn't mind seeing CFML be a bit more visible. It's probably gonna happen just because of evolution. Our language is swell, and keeps getting sweller. It's got that je ne sais quoi. The "free" that comes with open source is not the kind of "free" that most people attribute to it. There's nothing wrong with making money, or making various corporations money. Frankly, it seems the most successful open source projects currently have some type of corporate partnership. I think that's evolved, because it makes money. It's easier to have sorta separate entities than to wrap your head around what open source is really all about. But that's just speculation. What I'm trying to get at, and probably achieving poorly, is the idea that it's not an either/or proposition. There's space for both, and indeed, together more can be achieved than separate. At least that's the way it looks. I could be seeing things incorrectly though. Or processing them wrong. It seems logical though. =) The software landscape seems to be changing. It took a while, but you can't deny that Open Source is playing a major role now, when years and years ago so many people proclaimed it couldn't work, even when faced with the data which made the extrapolation pretty straightforward. People need money to eat, and drink, and be merry. Sadly, currency is not going to go away anytime soon, even though we should just skip the middle man and trade in time. Is your time worth my time? Or something like that. Haven't quite worked that bit out, but what I'm saying is there's plenty of loot out there to be had. I guess I'm a poor example, loot-wise, but that's my bad. :) I genuinely feel that CFML developers are much better off today than they were 3 years ago. And 3 years before that. And 3 years before... money-wise, I miss the dot com bubble, even though I never took advantage of it myself, but code-wise, it's all positive feelings. The language continues get more fantastic, which is fabulous, we've got that $$ option for people with $$, and the open source element which seems so hip these days. We're covered. I think the work Adobe & your team has done on CFB is awesome. There're not many people who know just how hard developing an IDE for our lovely language can be (even when standing on the shoulders of giants), but I'm one. Kudos, to your team for making it happen, and to Adobe for making it possible. I think that the power lies in our hands. Adobe is in a place plenty of other corps wish they were in. The positioning is swell... it's their game to throw. Played right, the future's bright. But I guess if I knew all that and a bag of chips, I'd be rolling in the dough, so... eh. I keep meaning to make money a priority... =) :Den -- It is a mania shared by philosophers of all ages to deny what exists and to explain what does not exist. Jean-Jacques Rousseau On Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 2:47 PM, Adrocknaphobia wrote: > > Denny, > > I think you see the world as you would hope it to be, not for the reality > that it is. A commendable quality, but not one Adobe can choose to share > with so many CFML careers on the line. It's been 3 years since OpenBD/Railo > went open source and removed the price barrier to CFML adoption. 3 years > since they gave up their attempts to compete with Adobe commercially. 3 > years since they proclaimed "CFML is not worth paying for". > > At any time Adobe could have made (or will make) ColdFusion free. Problem > is, cost is not the only barrier to adoption -- a reality many seem to > ignore. So, 3 years later, our community for all intensive purposes seems to > be shrinking (we have more CF jobs than developers). On top of losing CFML > developers, we now have a large amount a fragmentation. It would seem that > anything Adobe does in the CFML space is directly combated by the "Open CF" > movement. Because of this, CFML has increasingly become more and more toxic > for Adobe. I can't tell you how hard it is to fight for this community > within Adobe when a small external faction is recklessly trying to tear it > down. > > How can I ask Adobe to invest $$$ into growing the CFML developer community > when our ability to get a return is dramatically reduced? The fact is, the > Donna Bing's of the world (and the rest of the Open CF community) have all > but written off Adobe and ColdFusion. They've decided to no longer invest > any money in CFML and won't even give Adobe guidance to change. > > This is an honest and genuine question: Are CFML developers better off today > than they were 3 years ago? At the rate of which things are progressing, > will they be better off in 2014? Would they be better of w/o Adobe > ColdFusion? > > -Adam > > PS. Sorry to make this all about money, but that's one of the realities we > have to face about our current ecosystem. > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:341775 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/unsubscribe.cfm
