June 6, 2019
5 Reasons Why Adobe ColdFusion is Better Than C#
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(2)
June 6, 2019
5 Reasons Why Adobe ColdFusion is Better Than C#
Host CF Alive podcast, founder CFUnited, CEO TeraTech
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The .NET framework is one of the web’s most popular developing platforms. It consists of many different languages under one umbrella framework.  C# is one of these languages. Others include VB.NET and F#. It gets a lot of support as a great general programming language. But is it really that great?  Let’s take a look at a few points of comparison between C# and Adobe ColdFusion.

Adobe ColdFusion C#
Ease of Use
Ask any programmer with CFML experience what is the easiest programming language to learn. There’s a pretty good chance that ColdFusion will be their answer. It’s super user-friendly and very flexible. It provides the quality life to attract beginning coders and the computing power to satisfy even the most stringent needs of developers. If you’re looking for a simple way to program, this is not the language for you. C# is a very heavy and rigid language. It is very unforgiving when it comes to programming. Not to mention that the lines of code are often long and complex when compared to a language such as CFML. This leads to long thought to production times for your applications.
PDF and Document Support
There is no other platform available that has the document and PDF support out of the box that ColdFusion has. It can handle many important document conversions and manipulations including:

  • PPT to PDF
  • PPT to HTML
  • HTML to PPT
  • Word to PDF
  • Excel to Query
  • Query to Excel
  • Excel to HTML
  • HTML to PDF

All of these require no extra tooling. This can all be done natively through ColdFusion with a single CF tag.

Utilizing PDF and Documents with C# is no cakewalk. Many developers recommend an Intermediate level of knowledge before attempting this. That’s primarily because C# has no native support at all for PDF and a .NET SDK must first be installed just to do the task. Not only that, but it must be configured to make the conversions or manipulations. Afterwards, large blocks of code are required to complete the task. All in all… a lot of work.
Operating System Limitations
Adobe ColdFusion has no operating system restrictions. It can run on the three major platforms of Windows, Mac OS, and Linux without any problems. Being a Microsoft product and part of the .NET framework, it goes without saying, that C# runs best on Windows. That being said, it is not entirely impossible to program C# on a Mac. You have to use a third-party tool such as Xamarin Studio and will miss out on using many of the Microsoft tools that benefit C#. So Mac users, you may want to make a switch if programming in C#.
Security
Adobe takes their security concerns with ColdFusion and CFML very seriously. This sentiment attributes to ColdFusion being one of (if not, the most) secure programming platforms available today. With the latest release of ACF, Adobe implemented a new auto server lockdown feature. This function automatically takes you step by step through the ColdFusion Lockdown Procedure. The option to lockdown manually is still available as well. Plus with the constant security updates Adobe puts out, it’ll be hard to find a platform more secure. Being part of the .NET framework is definitely working against C# here. The .NET framework has been known to have the most security vulnerabilities out of any programming option. Many of these security vulnerabilities can be directly tied to the use of extremely verbose coding syntax.
Object-Oriented Programming
ColdFusion was not originally designed as an Object Oriented Programming (OOP) Language. As a matter of fact, OOP wasn’t really a thing until Macromedia’s ColdFusion MX and the introduction of ColdFusion Components (CFC). CFC’s do not turn ColdFusion into an OOP language, but they do allow for CF’ers to use many of the advantages allowed to Object Oriented programmers. C# definitely isn’t without its merits. It provides full encompassing support for Object Oriented Programming through inheritance, polymorphism and encapsulation. OOP is the core feature of the .NET framework (and that includes C#). So before jumping into C#, make sure you do some research into what makes OOP so awesome.

So, if you’re a Windows developer who’s into unwieldy blocks of code, security vulnerabilities, and don’t care about document and PDF support…

C# is the language for you.

However, if you’re looking for an easy to use, flexible platform with superior document support… ColdFusion may be your best bet.

It’s funny how a language as strong and secure as ColdFusion gets pushed aside in favor of other languages. What do you think the number one cause of this phenomenon is? Let us know in the comments below. Also, if you have any experience with C#… let us know how that was. We’d sure love to hear it.

For all the latest in CF news, be sure to listen in to the CF Alive podcast and follow us on Twitter at @TeraTechCF.

2 Comments
2019-06-07 13:58:00
2019-06-07 13:58:00

If this article was intended to be inflammatory, then congratulations – you have succeeded. I get the impression that you have not done a large amount of work with ASP.NET or C#.

Keep in mind while reading this: I do still think CFML is a good choice, but so is ASP.NET. I currently use both, and I enjoy using both. However, I will stick with Lucee CFML vs Adobe.

I have not used Adobe CF in a few years, but the last time I was involved, it was not possible to include only the parts of CF that were needed. C# makes it easy to only include what is needed (using statements). Lucee is also more modular now, so it is easy to leave out the parts of the framework you do not need.

Ease of use: Yes, C# is definitely more complex. This does have some benefits, such as being strongly typed, which I do prefer.

PDF Support: Again, I’m not sure where Adobe CF is now, but in the past the ability to create pdf documents existed, but it wasn’t particularly pleasant, and you were required to include the functionality whether or not it was being used. Lucee removed the pdf library from the core, and it is now easy to add on if needed. It is easy to include PDF capabilities in C# – there are quite a few free to use pdf packages that can be added to ASP.NET. Having a choice also gives me more control over how I want to manipulate a pdf. Other document types are also not difficult to manipulate.

Operating System Limitations: Please see .NET Core

Security: Really? All that aside, every language offers you the chance to be insecure. Implementation is the key.

OOP: I get the impression that you are stating that ColdFusion invented OOP. While I can’t be bothered to look up the facts, this seems unlikely.

 

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2019-06-07 06:45:35
2019-06-07 06:45:35

Beeing a CF developer for 20 years and a C# developer for 10 years I must say your selection of comparison points is very limited and very biased (which was to be expected from a dying platforms promoter). What about runtime performance. What about security (CF is Java based – did you forget that when mentioning the .NET framwork? LOL. And my user account got hacked from Adobe, not from MS 😉 ). What about community support. What about IDE. What about longterm maintainability of large code bases. What about quality of support and speed of reaction. What about licensing. I could go on and on and on.

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