What exactly IS ColdFusion? And why should I want to know about it?

[GeneR]

I was recently on the Macromedia website and noticed they mentioned ColdFusion, and then I have been looking for a new host provider for my websites when I noticed it being mentioned there at different ISPs. I'm sure this sounds pretty silly, but what exactly is ColdFusion? And should I learn about it if I am putting together websites?

Sorry for the bother. :D

[Wes]

Originally posted by GeneR
I was recently on the Macromedia website and noticed they mentioned ColdFusion, and then I have been looking for a new host provider for my websites when I noticed it being mentioned there at different ISPs. I'm sure this sounds pretty silly, but what exactly is ColdFusion? And should I learn about it if I am putting together websites?

Sorry for the bother. :D

Cold Fusion is a nuclear reaction during which the fusion of atoms is colder, and therefore more controlled. Oh wait.. I have been doing too much physics.

[suzerain]

Hi.

Cold Fusion is a middleware scripting language, like PHP, ASP, JSP, Zope and others, which is particularly useful for making dynamic Web sites (i.e., Web sites that create pages on the fly, perhaps from information in a database).

Should you learn it? That's up to you. I won't get into the flame wars about which language is the best, but in my opinion, I'd rather use PHP or JSP, since they are closer to coding practices you'd use elsewhere (like in Java, C or Perl, for instance).

Cold Fusion may allow you to do some things quicker, but in the end, it's just another proprietary scripting language.

Incidentally, it was created by Allaire, a company that macromedia bought. Currently, they are working to create integration between CF, Flash and DreamWeaver, so they can take all your money at once.

:D

[GeneR]

Originally posted by suzerain
Hi.

Cold Fusion is a middleware scripting language, like PHP, ASP, JSP, Zope and others, which is particularly useful for making dynamic Web sites (i.e., Web sites that create pages on the fly, perhaps from information in a database).

Incidentally, it was created by Allaire, a company that macromedia bought. Currently, they are working to create integration between CF, Flash and DreamWeaver, so they can take all your money at once.

:D

Dang. Good to know, thanks suzerain. :D

[Alte22a]

Well there you go. This is the information that I was searching for. COldfusion seems to be bundled with the PC version but not in Mac version. Been to the Macromedia and its not very helpful. Well got the information from here.. Thanks guys...