Coldfusion Vs. Php

kvarnerexpress

Jan 8 2006, 10:43 PM

I am a developer for a university and we currently use ColdFusion for all our web applications. Recently my supervisor has been asking me if I know php which I do and I am afraid that he is thinking of ditching ColdFusion in favor of PHP because "it's free" as he keeps hinting. I happen to know that the university is not in financial trouble and can easily continue to afford supporting ColdFusion. I feel that dropping it in favor of PHP would be a tremendous step backwards. ColdFusion is quick and convenient for small projects yet unbelievebly extendable since it can work with any Java package. It is also much better than PHP when it comes to maintaing neat, clean presentation separate from programming code. I need to make sure that I remove any serious intention of making this switch from my supervisor's mind and I'm looking for any point of argument to help me. Does anyone have good ideas for how I can convince him? I really appreciate it.

Avalon

Jan 9 2006, 12:22 AM

To be honest I have only used ColdFusion for a brief period before my ISP at the time decided going for the free PHP option was a better choice. Personally I didn't see a lot of difference between the 2 programs in what they can do. Sure the commands are a little different but basically it seemed to me that they have similar functionality. Then of course I probably only scratched the suface of ColdFusion's capabilities with just doing basic database stuff.

Perhaps going to PHP won't be such a bad thing, (besides all the coding you will have to do), PHP seems to have a lot more resources out there when you need help with a problem. Maybe if you did deeper into what PHP can do you might find it will do what you want anyway.

I know that won't help you convince your supervisor, but that's my thoughts anyway.

mukund

Jan 9 2006, 08:13 AM

Its best to use PHP.

Reasons

Easy Learning if u know C++
OO Programing
Lot of Support
Lot of Code
Good Future
Easy integration with other database
Easily available
Easy configuration
Easy to Install
Easy to write
And
Widespread

Kioku

Jan 9 2006, 08:54 AM

Personally, I just plain perfer php. It's seem to grown to me and it's easy to learn, imho at least. It seems to be all over, anyway.

Have a nice day.

hulunes

Jan 9 2006, 09:20 AM

umm,at first chose the active page language,contrasting severals,like ASP/php/coldfusion/jsp/... i think that asp and php is also easy to master and extend to others.with development of web technology and need,php(jsp is rather powerful but not widespread) is becoming the main stream at least when i used.i just realize coldfusion a little,hope to get some useful experience from here.

eee

Jan 24 2006, 11:59 PM

I havent used coldfusion yet but i always use php so php is my choice...

kelvinismyname

Jan 25 2006, 12:52 AM

I am currently learning Php..so far i can say that it is really easy to learn and i am adopting it really nicely......i havent tried cold fusion b4 but from what i read php out-performs it in certain areas

darthmalis

Jan 25 2006, 05:00 PM

I would stick wit PHP just for the fact that it is supported by nearly all hosts for no extra cost. Youmay like ColdFusion when somebody else is paying for it, but you would be better off getting more familiar with PHP

Yin-Yang

Mar 2 2006, 02:29 AM

PHP > Coldfusion

I'm learning PHP I already know C++ and PHP seams
like A joke but it does what I need it to.

Inspiron

Mar 2 2006, 08:48 AM

I'll prefer PHP as compared to any other server-sided scripts. My lecturer once told me that Java is the future, so does JSP, but I don't agree that JSP will be the future. These are my reasons:
JSP - Java Server Pages

1. PHP is widely supported
2. PHP has huge communities that you can find help easily with
3. PHP applications are easy to find and they work faster than any other server-size scripts
4. PHP is easiest to install
5. PHP is free

On the other hand, in the case of JSP,

1. JSP does not have any huge communities
2. JSP is harder to learn
3. JSP needs to be compiled before running, hence it is slower
4. There isn't any much help you can find for JSP
5. JSP is not easy to install

I'm not sure about ColdFusion, probably it may be worst than JSP because it pretty known to many people? I'm not sure..

Latest Entries

iGuest

Jul 10 2008, 03:49 PM

A lot of misinformation
Coldfusion Vs. Php

Many of these posts contain a great amount of incorrect information regarding Coldfusion.

In my experience, 90% of people who dislike Coldfusion have either no, or very little experience with it, and the experience they have is often 5+ years old.

I think Coldfusion gets a bad reputation because it is indeed so easy to learn, and because of this, theres a lot of bad code out there. However, comparing noob-level CF to more advanced PHP is certainly not a fair comparison. Coldfusion, written by competent developers, is both clean and highly modular.

Also, one thing people mention is that if you know C/C++, learning PHP is easier than CF. This statement shows the ignorance of most people regarding coldfusion. 90% of coldfusion can written in a C-style manner, called 'cfscript'.

I think there are certainly benefits to each. PHP is free, and more widely supported, and theres a lot of free stuff written in it. CF is backed by a larger company and can access any Java libraries at will.

Personally, I prefer Coldfusion. I like the language more (seems cleaner), and the rapid development factor makes a difference -- I can write half the code to do the same things in PHP. There are also a lot of built in, officially supported features that are very nice, including automatic PDF creation from HTML content (though, I'm sure many of the built-in features of CF have been created by someone for php).

As for high-level performance issues, I can't really comment, as I have no experience in web apps with huge amounts of traffic (hey, I'm not doin the sales, lol), but I've heard the rumors regarding CF's performance as well. I have also heard that CF8, the latest version greatly increased enterprise-level performance, and there are plenty of bigger sites out there running it.

It all comes down to whats right for you. If someones debating which to learn, I say learn both. Syntax is syntax, a good programmer can adapt to any situation.

-reply by absurdparadox

iGuest

Jun 28 2008, 09:20 AM

Hi everyone !

Currently I am using php...
I searched alot and also asked from experts, they say:
Php is better than coldfusion if you want to get a job...
But coldfusion is certainly easy but slower !

PHP is my choice.

Thats alll,
Thanks

-reply by Hassan Ahmad

Sica-GURU

Jun 27 2008, 04:37 PM

I would choose php,
right know thinking at cold fusin gives me headaches...but I believe with strong knowledge in cf you're faster than with php..
but for now I'm still learning php so no bother to use cf..

optiplex

Jun 27 2008, 04:24 PM

To be honestly, I never really tried coldfusion
but I would go for PHP

More people use PHP

Almost every free hosts support PHP

not many hosts support coldfusion, thats why I wasnt able to learn more about coldfusion

ALLOT of PHP Tutorials online

Its free afcourse

If you know C++/ C# it will be easy to learn

Its easier, I think

You can compile PHP codes to executable(bambalam, php2exe etc...)

Its very fast, and great for making web applications

And lots more!
Its just better, dont u think

?

- optiplex

iGuest

Jun 25 2008, 12:12 PM

An the survey says... *eh uhrrrr*
Coldfusion Vs. Php

Replying to Trap FeedBacker

The comments by Heath Sims are what you call a 'biased response'. I'm thinkin' that's a typical "my programming language is better than yours" reply.

Forgetting the fact that, that article has an impressive amount of 'shortcomings' in itself and is outdated, every programming language on earth has its shortcomings (I guess you forgot to add a link to ColdFusion's?).

Performance wise, unless somebody would like to go away and run benchmark tests on both numbering in the thousands to get a reliable result which all have an impressive amount of variables that have to be accounted for, none of us are in a position to question "Which has the better performance?".

"Also if PHP ever did have anything better then coldfusion don't you think the billion dollar company Adobe would have made coldfusion better"

The fact that Adobe has money has absolutely no bearing at all on which is the better programming language. Some of the best projects in the world have been free and open source.

"Also you wont find one commercial company using php, end of story.
If you want to be a developer and make money cold fusion all the way. Don't say commercial companies do, they don't. I know for a fact they don't. They want a product made by a company who is the ****, adobe is it."

Wow that's a strong statement, you also couldn't be more wrong. In fact, it's the absolute opposite. The company I work for (the market leader in what it does) runs the entire business off complex Adobe Flex applications with a PHP and MSSQL backend (we even switched to PHP from ColdFusion). PHP freelancers also receive more work than ColdFusion developers (search any major freelancer site). There are more PHP jobs available than ColdFusion http://www.Itjobswatch.Co.Uk is a good example (for the UK).

So lets "Be realistic".

Dis

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