7 ms·

I miss ColdFusion. I really liked the idea of a tag based server side language. It will never have the power or expressiveness of other languages but for raw

I miss ColdFusion. I really liked the idea of a tag based server side language. It will never have the power or expressiveness of other languages but for raw productivity of producing very simple dynamic apps with an incredibly low bar to entry for new/non-programmers, nothing else was even close.

adventured 7y ago
With ColdFusion 5 they did let you out of the strict tag box slightly, with the cfscript tag: https://helpx.adobe.com/coldfusion/cfml-reference/coldfusion-tags/tags-r-s/cfscript.html https://helpx.adobe.com/coldfusion/cfml-reference/coldfusion...
mikehodgson 7y ago
For the past 10 years you've been able to write code in script or tags. Our application uses tag syntax for views, and script syntax for controllers, services, db model, etc. It's Java, so it has as much power and expressiveness as Java.
smt88 7y ago
> nothing else was even close Well, I'd argue that PHP and Python were roughly equally easy, although they didn't "blend" into the HTML as well (which is good or bad, depending on your viewpoint). ASP was supposed to be just as easy, but I remember some of those code bases being pretty woolly. Nowadays, I think we actually have it easier. I haven't used many of the other front-end frameworks, but you can design/generate a back-end in a few minutes using Open API Spec, add a persistence layer in a few more minutes, and wire it up to a Vue front-end very quickly. And the kicker is that it's modular and maintainable, which a lot of CF/PHP/ASP projects certainly were not.
- clairity 7y ago
  > "Nowadays, I think we actually have it easier...." no, it's not even close. you'd have to learn a whole javscript framework, read the open api spec, grok backend vs frontend, and really understand the modern web before you could even get started, not to mention the fomo induced by the hundreds of other options you'd have to discard in the process. for the average human, that's a non-starter. with tag-based coldfusion, it felt like you were learning an extension to html, rather than an entirely different (programming) language. while php/asp were somewhat easy to learn, coldfusion was extra-super-duper-easy (i taught classes back in the day). people with no prior experience could create a dynamic web page in an hour or two and feel that sense of accomplishment that drove them deeper into it.

adventured 7y ago

With ColdFusion 5 they did let you out of the strict tag box slightly, with the cfscript tag: https://helpx.adobe.com/coldfusion/cfml-reference/coldfusion-tags/tags-r-s/cfscript.html https://helpx.adobe.com/coldfusion/cfml-reference/coldfusion...

mikehodgson 7y ago

For the past 10 years you've been able to write code in script or tags. Our application uses tag syntax for views, and script syntax for controllers, services, db model, etc. It's Java, so it has as much power and expressiveness as Java.

smt88 7y ago

> nothing else was even close Well, I'd argue that PHP and Python were roughly equally easy, although they didn't "blend" into the HTML as well (which is good or bad, depending on your viewpoint). ASP was supposed to be just as easy, but I remember some of those code bases being pretty woolly. Nowadays, I think we actually have it easier. I haven't used many of the other front-end frameworks, but you can design/generate a back-end in a few minutes using Open API Spec, add a persistence layer in a few more minutes, and wire it up to a Vue front-end very quickly. And the kicker is that it's modular and maintainable, which a lot of CF/PHP/ASP projects certainly were not.

clairity 7y ago
> "Nowadays, I think we actually have it easier...." no, it's not even close. you'd have to learn a whole javscript framework, read the open api spec, grok backend vs frontend, and really understand the modern web before you could even get started, not to mention the fomo induced by the hundreds of other options you'd have to discard in the process. for the average human, that's a non-starter. with tag-based coldfusion, it felt like you were learning an extension to html, rather than an entirely different (programming) language. while php/asp were somewhat easy to learn, coldfusion was extra-super-duper-easy (i taught classes back in the day). people with no prior experience could create a dynamic web page in an hour or two and feel that sense of accomplishment that drove them deeper into it.