[thelist] JSP vs ASP vs PHP vs CF

[zac]

> On the other hand CF is quite
> restrictive but is quick for doing normal tasks like getting information
> from a form and updating a database.

Well I have to agree with Seth and object to this characterisation. I find
CF very robust and unlike you have found it an excellent language to develop
in.  

What areas do you find it restrictive in?

> It doesn't have objects and functions
> so it can be very tedious doing complicated applications.

But it does have modules which allow you to send, and test for, named
attributes. This isn't the same as functions but it has some strengths that
functions lack. I appreciate the ability to use functions in PHP but there
are just as many times that, when using PHP, I miss modules.

And while it doesn't have objects it dos have some features like application
scoped variables hat make it quite simple to define a series of application
and user based variables in your code.

> Also the language
> is made up of tags which gets tedius after a while for large amount of code
> (though there is a C like version of the language but its very basic).

Tag based  it might be but the benefit of this is that it allows you to
build pages without having to "echo" or "write" you HTML data. HTML code is,
with the exceptions of # characters, entered into a CFM page in the exact
fashion it gets displayed.

If anything this is far less tedious than having to juggle opening and
closing language specific tags in PHP or ASP and having to encode your HTML
data.

They all have plusses and minuses and I don't think that there is any one
language that really stands out from the others.

The only real point in the favour of any one language is that PHP seems more
familiar to C programmers, ASP seems more familiar to VB programmers and CF
seems more familiar to HTML coders and designers.

-- 

Occam's Razor states that the simplest, though possibly not conceivable,
answer to a problem is most likely the correct one.

Obviously this doesn't apply to  troubleshooting Windows.