So, today there was a little discussion on Twitter about ColdFusion. ColdFusion lives on top of Java, specifically on top of the JVM, which makes it capable of processing other languages as well. Sean Corfield has put out some things in the past on this. I mentioned that it would be good to rekindle talk of how that is possible, in ways to help promote ColdFusion as a platform.
I was somewhat surprised by Sean's response.
#coldfusion really has no value to those communities - they already have better languages and better toolsNow, I want to go on record now as saying that I love Sean to death, and really and truly respect his work and his opinions. I also love ColdFusion a lot too. So, my question (basically) then became "What's wrong with ColdFusion?" So, I posed another question to Sean, that I'll pose to the community as a whole: What's wrong with ColdFusion as a language? As a platform for enterprise development? More to the point, how can it be made better? I'm not looking for a hack fest, or "my crap is better than your crap" stuff, I'm looking for some solid feedback. What does it take to try to make ColdFusion a first class choice among programmers of web enabled applications? More to the point, what does it take to do that and keep it CF simple? ColdFusion has always been a great Rapid Application Development platform, with a very lower barrier of entry, and an ease to learn and maintain. Is it too simple? Too forgiving? If the direction of the ColdFusion platform development were to drastically change today, with a focus on the language and the core of the system, what would/should that look like? What is truly missing? What should be done differently, and how? (And why?) Gimme the nuts and bolts. The floodgates are open now. If we never talk about it, nothing will ever change. Please be constructive, and let me know your thoughts.