Considering Coldfusion

Anon

I've read a couple of previous threads on PHP vs. Coldfusion which were very informative (thanks to all who contributed to them), but I'm still not sure which is right for an upcoming project.

These are my reasons for considering Coldfusion:
1. I'm still relatively new to all this.
2. I'm on a strict deadline and budget.
3. Everything I need to do seems to be well within Coldfusion's expectations.

I'm thinking that, given the above, Coldfusion will let me turn out a solid, bug-free app in less time than PHP.

Is there something I'm not considering that would still make PHP the better choice for this project?

The project is basically an on-line store. It won't be particularly big in terms of hits per day, but there will be peak periods where we might have 30 users or more accessing the site at the same time. Would this bring up speed issues severe enough to swing things in PHP's favor?

Please don't hate me for being a turncoat. I still think PHP is superior to CF, but the best tool isn't always the right one for a particular task.

Anon

I only have one thought.......BUDGET.

I thought that cf costs heaps?

rgds,
scott d

Anon

Here is my input:

I first learned PHP about a year ago and within 2 hrs. I was up and running with PHP/Apache/MySQL. This includes a fresh install on my RH distro. Add another hour and the PHP tutorial on PHP/MySQL at WebMonkey and I had a basic PHP site with an admin interface and a news engine.

Add a week onto that and presto I had a PHP driven site with multiple voting booths, dynamic links, etc. PHP by far is the easiest, fastest, cheapest web language out there. To top it all off it scales like hell (our site gets 30M page views a month!).

Of course, I do contract work on the site also :o)

I also have gobs of PHP code that you can look at if you want - just email me. I probably have enough code lying around to make the site you want.

Anon

Obsolence is a key factor. In 5 years will CF be around? Probably not since PHP, Perl, Python, MySQL, etc. keep getting better and better everyday and Allair will not be able to compete in the long term with Open Source solutions that are already superior.

And how about support. Ask a question here or several other places on the net and you will get a dozen answers and real help. Can you get the same quality support for CF?

Anon

It's only the server that's really expensive, which isn't something we're dealing with on this one. It does translate to higher hosting fees, but not enough to be more than a minor consideration.

Thxs for your response,
Beth

Anon

I don't know. I think CF fills a niche - server-side development for non-programmers - that the Open Source solutions don't touch. On the other hand, obsolence is always a consideration in propietary software.

You're right about support. I had forgotten about that one. I haven't tried Allaire's support service, but my general experience has been that unless you've got megabucks for top-level support contracts or really love spending hours on hold, open source provides much better support.

Beth

Steve Troxel wrote:

And how about support. Ask a question here or several other places on the net and you will get a dozen answers and real help. Can you get the same quality support for CF?

Anon

Wow. That's really impressive. How about stability? Did it take you long to work out all the kinks? It's been my experience that adding in all the exception handling can take almost as long as developing the working app. Still, if I can get all the server-side scripting done in a couple of weeks, I'll be ok. And with your generous offer of code, that doesn't seem unrealistic.

I'm definitely leaning towards PHP, now. I downloaded and installed it last night and plan to play around with it today. If all goes well, you guys can look forward to being plagued with endless questions over the next few weeks. ;-)

One more thing, have you had any experience with the WDDX functions? It's likely the site I'm developing will eventually need them and I want to be prepared.

Beth

Anon

Stability? Come on - it's Linux/PHP/Apache/MySQL! ;o)

For real though - we have 5 web nodes and a dual intel running our DB, which is working well (we are upgrading to more nodes and a Solaris DB, but it's not PHP's fault we have to upgrade).

I would say for sure that you could script what you needed to in a few weeks - hell it took me a week or two to get my entire site up and running (ok, so it wasn't exactly brainy code - but it worked!)

If you need help just post it here - I'm not personally familiar with WDDX, but I'm sure a slew of others are. Also get signed up to the PHP mailing list (you can find it on php.net) - it's a high traffic weblist, but you will learn a lot.

Take care,

Joe

ps I do contract work as well ;o)

Anon

Maybe I used the wrong word. I meant the stability of the PHP code, that is, how did it hold up in the real world? Were you able to work out all the kinks? Did you have unexpected crashes? unsuspected bugs? That sort of thing.

Beth

miester wrote:

Stability? Come on - it's Linux/PHP/Apache/MySQL! ;o)

Anon

Oh god no! PHP is solid as a rock - and since it doesn't run in its own binary there isn't such a thing as PHP "crashing" (not that Apache can't crash - but that is unrelated)

Basically if you are a half way decent coder you should be able to make applications that scale up to where we site at (if you have the hardware to support it)

Anon

I've been developing in php for the past two years..

just recently I've taken over a job where the previous guy was a big cf fan. so my boss reckons its the best thing since sliced bread.

so i've been coding very large intranet apps in coldfusion and its horrible, although it has some neat graphing features if your not using that you mightaswell use php.

the optional OO approach to php is way better than the non existant one with cf.

marz.