Rob Brooks-Bilson
Tech, Photography, Stuff
ColdFusion Dying? Not if 400,000+ Developers Have a Say
May 24, 2007
By now, you've probably read the Computerworld column titled "The top 10 dead (or dying) computer skills" by Mary Brandel. In it, she lists 10 technologies she considers dead or dying. Coming in at number 5 is ColdFusion.
With all the recent buzz over Scorpio, as well as a recently released report by Evans Data citing the number of ColdFusion developers at over 400,000 (see this post from Matt Woodward's writeup of Tim Buntel's D.C. Scorpio presentation), it's hard to see how she can justify saying that ColdFusion is dying.
In fact, all of the evidence I've seen points to exactly the opposite:
- Adobe has gone on record stating that the number of ColdFusion devlopers is up from previously published numbers.
- Sales of ColdFusion have continued to grow steadily
- Adobe has made a significant investment in ColdFusion 8
- The number of companies looking for ColdFusion developers has increased dramatically.
ColdFusion is in use at most of the Fortune 100 companies as well as most branches of the U.S. government. It's much more heavily utilized for Intranets and corporate applications behind the firewall, so that maybe where a lack of "public" visibility comes from.
I think what this latest round of FUD surrounding ColdFusion boils down to is this. The state of technical writing in trade publications such as Computerworld is abysmal. Top ten type lists are easy to write and garner a lot of attention. The source of information for the ColdFusion piece of the story is a small technical recruiter in a small state (Connecticut). It's hardly representative of where ColdFusion is in the marketplace. How do you think the results would have read had the writer contacted a recruiter in D.C. where there's a quite heavy concentration of ColdFusion shops?
My point is, the article just isn't accurate when it comes to ColdFusion, or C for that matter. The only way to combat this type of bad reporting, though, is to make your voice heard. Ray Camden has a good suggestion on his blog, where he suggests leaving feedback (politely) for the reporter letting her know your thoughts on the article.
TweetBacks
5/24/07 8:11 PM
Its dying whether you like it or not!
5/24/07 9:16 PM
@nofusion: I have 833 reasons why you're wrong:
http://www.gotcfm.com/thelist.cfm
And the list continues to grow.
5/24/07 11:46 PM
don't feed the trolls :)
5/25/07 1:51 AM
Holy cowabunga former Pascal programmer (me) and still using ColdFusion twelve years (come July) later. What am I doing right or wrong?
5/25/07 6:57 AM
AAARRRGGGHHH!!!!!
this is a problem of Adobe's own making.
The companies exec's - the ones that the press listen to - have stedfastly refused to comment on ColdFusion, their vision of it and they're support of it.
Instead it's Flash this, Flex that, server products of FDS, FlashMediaServer and now LiveCycle. Time and time agian at press conference meaningful ColdFusion mentions has been conspicious by it's absence.
And into this vacuum fear and doubt spread because there's no official word to say otherwise. Tim Buntel and Ben Forta don't count. They're footsoldiers.
Lets see the Generals lead from the front.
I put it to you: if Adobe were waiving CF's flag effectively (and I'm not talking about paid advertising) - this person would have nothing to write about.
Bruce Chizen knows nothing of CF? Hey, that's not my problem. It's a software tool - a hammer - not a flippin' religion. Unlike the Adobe board, I don't have shares in the company. It's not my bottom line to support
I'll fly CF's flag at work, I'll continue to bust a gut supporting the local user groups and local community in my own time. But if CF8 (when released) doesn't get the support from Adobe big-wigs, I'll be mighty cheesed off - cheated, even.
My boss would read articles like this. My "standard" is Adobe exec's talking about CF8 and it's future and to be effective enough for my boss to notice.
Nah, I'm not lifting one finger to put this reporter off because the bottom line is that it's someone elses business. I'm getting mighty tired defending CF when Adobe management can bloody-well get off their behinds and do support their company.
this guy or any of this mates (on the right) will do
http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/executivebios/brucechizen.html" target="_blank">http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/executiv...
and some CF news here perhaps
http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/
a perfect opportunity is coming up with CF8's release. Let's see what happens, eh?
5/25/07 11:16 AM
Hi Barry,
Certainly some valid points you make. I didn't mean to imply that we could "solve" the problem just by posting comments on the author's article.
What frustrates me the most here isn't what Adobe does or doesn't do to get CF out there (although, I would like to see them do more), it's the fact that people in my company will see the article and I'll have to spend time reassuring them about the technology decisions we've made. That's what bugs me the most -having to repeat the cycle of explain and defend every six months or so when some article like this one comes out.
5/25/07 3:25 PM
Rob, and what bugs me most is A) she went to a nobody dinky consulting firm to get a quote and never bothered to do any real research or ping us, B) we are actively briefing the press about Scorpio now and ComputerWorld just blew us off! So, they don't talk to us, and when we independently contact that (as we do all press) they show no interest. Now how the heck do you combat that kind of one-sided stupidity?
--- Ben
5/25/07 3:34 PM
Hi Ben,
That was my point RE the staffing firm she did her "research" through. A small time player in Connecticut certainly doesn't well represent the hiring industry as a whole.
As for combating the likes of Computerworld, I'm not sure what the direct solution is there. Certainly you (and the rest of the Adobe CF crew) is out there, hitting the streets evangelizing ColdFusion, and I think the buzz within the ColdFusion community is very loud. The question then becomes, how do you get the message out there, outside of the community, especially when the trade publications and the analysts aren't listening.
Personally, I'm very excited about the release of Scorpio, and what the future holds for ColdFusion. As long as it continues to fit our needs (which it always has), we'll continue using it. I've done a good job at my company getting people to see ColdFusion in terms of Java alignment, and as a "productivity layer" on top of Java, which serves us well.
Having the Adobe name attached to ColdFusion certainly helps. We just need to generate more mainstream press and publicity around it.
5/25/07 6:12 PM
"Now how the heck do you combat that kind of one-sided stupidity?"
put sugar in their fuel tank...
no, seriously, bad journalism (and it's not just this person) gets to have an easy go because thay have "wiggle room". Sadly, it's mostly an opinion piece and journalism standards don'tusually apply.
Our organisation moved from CF at the end of last year. Mostly through ignorance, spurned on by stakeholders who have a say but not knowing all the facts. Rubbish like that item only inflame their lack of understanding and non-appreciation of CF.
mind you, I still enjoy rubbing it in by throwing in the occasional "but ColdFusion can do that easily" or "CFDocument can do this in 2 lines of code"... lest we forget.
5/25/07 9:15 PM
Ben and Tim must have worked their respective butts off travelling around the USA spruiking ColdFusion 8 (aka Scorpio). Hope they can do a little more for the rest-of-world before CF8 is released. I know that many of you yanks appreciated their efforts.
Pity the author didn't bother to speak to either of them (or the firm that quoted ColdFusion doesn't even know about how cool Scorpio is becoming). Thankfully Ben and Tim know how much we appreciate their efforts in this regard and that the whole ColdFusion development team are idolised for making our jobs easier with better and better versions of ColdFusion each 1.5 year or so.
Adobe is a big company and the merger with Macromedia is already showing enormous benefits for ColdFusion users with a rash of new upgrades - I am enjoying Dreamweaver and Fireworks CS3 - not radical updates but still improved) - and can't wait for the full release of CF8 as my current project is currently targetting this platform. ColdFusion is dead alright. Dead good!
5/25/07 9:30 PM
I too have wondered about the future of CF especially after developing my first Flex application. My first Flex app started out as a hybrid CF and Flex app but the further I got into it the more I realized the advantages of Flex over CF. The only way CF is going to survive as a front end development environment is if it can make the migration to a RIA development environment. If not then I don't see much use for CF beyond back end processing (CFC's for Flex) and some limited report generation… and I do mean limited because Flex’s reporting tools are pretty awesome too.
I don’t do much work with ASP, .not, php, etc… but if those languages can’t make the leap to the RIA world then their lifespan will be limited as well. Don’t take me wrong here. I love CF and have been working with it for the last ten years. It just after writing my first application in Flex I really can’t see any advantages for using CF to generate the front end over Flex. The speed and presentation capabilities of Flex over CF are to numerous to be ignored. I will continue to use CF for the immediate future to interface with my back end databases and to do some report generation but the majority of all my future front ends will be in Flex. I am sure that it will only be a matter of time before Flex incorporates some good ODBC tools into the language too. When that happens CF will become a small niche player and will no longer be a relevant application development environment… and that will be a sad day IMHO.
It will be interesting to see what the next generation of CF is going to be able to provide developers in terms of tools to create RIA interfaces. It’s been a great decade long ride, but as is, “Flex this and Flash that” is the handwriting on the wall… Just my 2 cents…