I've been developing web applications for a few years now. I've always developed my applications using the php/mysql server model.

Originally when I became interested in developing web applications I started by writing cgi scripts in perl. Perl is a powerful language, there is no doubt, but I was taken back when I discovered that what I would write in 30 lines of perl I could be writing in 10 lines of php. I decided that it was time to switch languages so I dedicated my time to learning php. One of the first books I purchased was "PHP and MySQL Web Development (3rd edition)".

Soon I discovered that php was an equally powerful language, perhaps even more practical in the realm of web application development than perl. There are a lot of libraries in php to facilitate web application development but it still seemed like it was a bit on the bulky side.

Enter ColdFusion 8... I'm extremely excited about this new release. After all this language was written specifically for web application development. I'm again thinking about transitioning my working model. I feel as though my days of php web application development are slowly coming to an end. I see a bright future for ColdFusion developers... it ties in so well with other existing technologies, Flex 2 for example makes extensive use of ColdFusion Components, Rich Internet Applications are also something that is becoming the norm and a lot of these RIA's make extensive use of CFC's.

I recently ordered a book titled "Adobe ColdFusion 8 Web Application Construction Kit, Volume 1: Getting Started" by Ben Forta, Raymond Camden, and Charlie Arehart. This book is part of a series on ColdFusion. I'm excited to start learning this language and even more excited to deploy an application using it.

I'll be posting more about my experiences with ColdFusion.

-Warren