I’d like to introduce myself: my name is Kay Smoljak and I’m a ColdFusion developer. I’m going to be posting here from time to time on topics related to my development language of choice.
I’ve been coding in CF for a while now. I started way back in 1999 – the version 4 days – when Netscape Navigator 4 ruled the web, PHP was at version 3 and the dot com bubble was just starting to get interesting.
Things certainly have changed since that time. Over the course of four versions and a complete rewrite in Java, Allaire ColdFusion became Macromedia ColdFusion and then found a new home at Adobe. What hasn’t changed is that CF is still not well-known in the general web development community, and a lot of misinformation regularly makes the rounds of both individuals’ blogs and large tech publications.
So, I’m going to be doing what I can to dispel those nasty myths (number one: no, ColdFusion is not dead!) and highlight some of the cool things that are happening in the ColdFusion community. There’s certainly a lot to cover: from frameworks to open source projects, from built-in features like reporting, image manipulation and Ajax controls to third party tools and IDEs. Not to mention integration with other Adobe products like Flex, Flash, Acrobat and AIR.
As if that’s not enough, even though version 8 has been out less than three months, at the MAX North America conference just a couple of weeks ago Adobe showed a sneak peak of what’s coming in version 9. For the ColdFusion developer, exciting times lie ahead!
Now, over to you: is there something in particular you’d like to see covered, a question you’d like to see explored or a favourite myth that needs busting? Leave a comment, and I’ll see if I can answer or more likely, find someone else to bug for a response.
Kay Smoljak
