Should I learn ColdFusion and/or PHP? (Full Version)

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spinningjennie -> Should I learn ColdFusion and/or PHP? (5/13/2008 20:10:07)

An online university course is on offer that provides instruction in ColdFusion and PHP, so I could start to learn how to create dynamically generated online content. This will take 13 weeks of 12 hours/week study (time that will be difficult to manage) and I'm wondering if I might be better to do a shorter more intensive 4 day course that focuses on only PHP.

Would it be very useful for me to know both ColdFusion and PHP?

Thanks for any advice!
spinningjennie



Tailslide -> RE: Should I learn ColdFusion and/or PHP? (5/14/2008 2:19:51)

It depends on your funds and what you plan on doing with it later in my opinion.

If you're planning on being a smallish scale web designer doing sites for mainly small and medium businesses then I'd go for PHP. It's free and there are thousands of PHP scripts in existence already so you can use/tweak them.

If you're planning on working on larger, enterprise level applications then Cold Fusion might well be a good idea - in particular if you can get someone else to buy the package for you - it's very expensive.

So basically: just building plain old websites? Go for PHP. Building big, complex applications that go beyond a simple site? Think about CF.

Personally, I'm pretty small scale - I build static sites or dynamic CMS-controlled sites for small and medium sized businesses. I use PHP and it's more than enough. I just couldn't justify the expenditure of CF and CF's power would be wasted on what I'd use it for. It'd be like using a ferrari to do the school run.




spinningjennie -> RE: Should I learn ColdFusion and/or PHP? (5/14/2008 5:03:40)

Thanks Tailslide. I'm in the small scale category, so your advice helps a great deal.

I've been inching my way into a 1.5" thick PHP textbook, thinking I might teach myself if I didn't do a course. I must look out for existing scripts to make this even easier.

Cheers,
spinningjennie



Tailslide -> RE: Should I learn ColdFusion and/or PHP? (5/14/2008 5:28:17)

There are so many existing php scripts. Generally I end up tweaking existing stuff - or re-using and re-using the home-made stuff.

I'd love to learn it systematically - just never seem to have the time. I've also tried reading through books on PHP but usually end up asleep or suddenly finding something else fascinating to do! So I know the basics that I need to do most of the stuff I do (if that makes sense). I get help in on very complex stuff if necessary.

I'd love to really get to grips with the OOP thing - but generally end up using all the older style long-winded stuff. I find that my mind-set, being so used to HTML has difficulty with the non-procedural approach of OOP.

Just be careful which version you use - it's now up to PHP5 and there are some crucial differences with earlier versions.



spinningjennie -> RE: Should I learn ColdFusion and/or PHP? (5/17/2008 4:37:40)

Thanks for the tip on PHP5 vs earlier versions, and the mention of OOP, which I've just looked up on Google.

The book I'm using is using PHP5, thank goodness. It seems good (Larry Ullman: PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Websites 2nd ed) and is on the Australian Open University's text book list, though I note that there's a 3 page errata listing - probably inevitable with programming texts.

You're right about it being easy to find something else to do, other than read them!

I wish there was a PHP online validator, as there is for xhtml and css!

spinningjennie



jaybee -> RE: Should I learn ColdFusion and/or PHP? (5/17/2008 5:04:13)

quote:

I've also tried reading through books on PHP but usually end up asleep or suddenly finding something else fascinating to do!


Ditto! [sm=rofl6.gif]



jaybee -> RE: Should I learn ColdFusion and/or PHP? (5/17/2008 5:05:50)

quote:

I wish there was a PHP online validator, as there is for xhtml and css!


No need. If you get it wrong you'll get a nice big error message slapped across the page. [:D]



Tailslide -> RE: Should I learn ColdFusion and/or PHP? (5/17/2008 5:20:48)

One of the good things about PHP is that if you get it wrong you get error messages as Jaybee says - but the error messages are actually helpful!

Larry Ullman is quite well thought of. I've got one of his books too (not that I've read it all the way through!).



jaybee -> RE: Should I learn ColdFusion and/or PHP? (5/17/2008 7:25:17)

quote:

I've got one of his books too (not that I've read it all the way through!).


Nice cover though [;)]



spinningjennie -> RE: Should I learn ColdFusion and/or PHP? (5/19/2008 8:32:19)

Thanks Jaybee and Tailslide for the tips. I have got the on screen error messages, which are mostly pretty OK, but probably because I'm very new at this, I've still had some perplexing times.

spinningjennie




BobbyDouglas -> RE: Should I learn ColdFusion and/or PHP? (5/21/2008 2:01:04)

I have heard from a handful of Cold Fusion devs that the language is pretty much dead. I still see quite a few Cold Fusion devs around though... last week I picked up an incredibly large CF project too.

Tizag has a great online PHP tutorial section. I would suggest you go through that before you pick up a book, you'll at least get your hands a bit dirty before you jump into the book.



Tailslide -> RE: Should I learn ColdFusion and/or PHP? (5/21/2008 2:24:01)


quote:

ORIGINAL: BobbyDouglas

I have heard from a handful of Cold Fusion devs that the language is pretty much dead.


Wow really? I never really looked into it properly but from the little I understand about CF it's meant to be a relatively nice language/framework whatever - meant to be very logical compared to the opposition. Lots built in.

What killed it then? Cost probably? Maybe just the normal PHP/.Net paradigm?



BobbyDouglas -> RE: Should I learn ColdFusion and/or PHP? (5/21/2008 13:02:54)

.NET seems to be the most popular choice still today. There are still CF projects around, but .NET dominates it completely...

I just went over to elance and saw 1 CF based job, compared to over a 100 .NET based jobs. CF will be around for awhile, simply because it did get big at one point.



spinningjennie -> RE: Should I learn ColdFusion and/or PHP? (5/22/2008 9:08:18)

Many thanks BobbyDouglas for that Tizag link for the online PHP tutorial which looks like a great way to begin PHP!

spinningjennie



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