ColdFusion vs PHP?

[alexfusion]

Hello everyone!
I really don't know where to post this question but here I go:
I am using heavily ColdFusion for web prgramming.That's fine for me.
The other day I asked to an "expert" if mastering ColdFusion is worth,because of the quick changes about web programming languages.
The answer was that ColdFusion is loosing its popularity because the power of the set PHP,Apache and MySQL.
I have seen an significant growth about web sites that use PHP.
Will all of the Cold Fusion programmers have to migrate to PHP or ASP because of this trend?
Am I wasting my time,effort and money?
Any advice welcome !

Thank you a lot!

Alejandro

mixale@hotmail.com

 

[GunJack]

Hey Alejandro,

It all depends on your focus in my opinion. I do Internet consulting and find that the vast majority of companies use or want to use ASP because of the availability of ASP coders and the fact that it's free. I find that it's incredibly cumbersome and lacking in features that are standard in CF (everything you'd expect in a MS product). If you want to become proficient in a language that will make you more employable, ASP would be the better choice.

If you will be using the coding for your own use or in a company Intranet where it's your choice as to platform, I think CF is the best route to go because I find that it is truly a rapid application development tool. I think Php3 is probably a great tool but what little I've seen of it looked more like a low level language such as C than a high level scripting language. I think that you'll find CF and ASP easier to learn but you'll have greater control with Php3.

I don't think CF is going away any time soon but it's very possible Macromedia will kill it off if they never understand what they bought. I was told about some changes in their licensing of CF 5.0 that would have made it too costly for ISPs to implement and I think that would have dramatically hurt CF's popularity. Fortunately, the last word I heard is that they changed their minds so I think CF still has the chance to grow in popularity.

Hope this helps,
GJ

 

[alexfusion]

Hey GJ,
I must thank you for your opinion about the question I posted.I totally agree with you and your opinion is very much appreciated.
I hope Macromedia take the right way about CF.
Once again thank you for your response.

Regards,

Alejandro