Andrew Scott wrote:
<snip>
CF is very rapid development, and you might say the same about PHP.
The point is that these are all the things you need to take into
consideration, the cost that it would take to develop and maintain in
either language, as well as cost involved in the need of the
application having to be a true enterprise solution.
I am not here to bag php, I am here to make some points about the
cost of the application in the overall scenario. Would you develop in
a language that you know could not deliver an enterprise solution if
in 6 months that's what you really need, and how would you look if
you recommended a language because it was free, but in time had to
spend more again to make it fully scalable to an enterprise level if
it needed it. My point is that both languages have their merits,
both have their advantages and disadvantages, but what about the cost
is it really worth not researching something properly before jumping
into bed with what you think might work?
Why do you believe PHP is not capable of being the basis of a "true
enterprise solution"? You've said that several times now without backing
it up and I'd like to hear your reasons so I'm better informed next time
I have to make this kind of decision.
I know what I would do if someone who worked for me, came to me an
recommended a language and had not done the research into all
possible paths, that person would be very answerable to why we had to
spend more down the track.
In my experience if you develop a PHP system with a view to scalability
(as you would no doubt need to with CF also) the most you would need to
spend to allow it to scale up to an "enterprise solution" is to purchase
something like the Zend Platform and more hardware which from what I
know is likely to be cheaper than the equivalent requirements for CF.
Now that you have bagged CF, lets look at PHP. The amount of work
that is needed to implement a reporting solution is hard work and
takes a lot of code, the amount of work needed to generate a PDF or
even a flash paper is hard work in php, or what about RIA development
(Rich Internet Application's) that con leverage of flash to make
presentation look good with minimal work.
This functionality can and does save more work than you could ever
possibly achieve in php, RAD development because it creates less work
to achieve something that would take a lot of work and time in php.
Don't get me started on the integration of crystal reports and php, I
have had to do it and it was not easy compared to the same job in
coldfusion. A good developer will know when to use the right tools
for the job.
Again, for future reference please state specifically what functionality
CF provides with regards to integration with Flash and PDF generation
that makes it so much better than PHP for these tasks. Is this
functionality built in to CF or are they addons? If they are addons what
does it cost to add them on?
For my 2p-worth I have to say that I am yet to come across a requirement
that PHP cannot fulfil either through built-in functionality or
freely-available addons. However, if I'm lacking knowledge of the killer
feature CF has to offer please enlighten me.
Incidentally, if I have a requirement for a CPU-intensive function that
does not already exist in CF, what options are there for adding it
myself? Can I write code in C/C++ that integrates tightly with the CF
engine so I can optimize the crap out of it?
Thanks in advance for your responses.
-Stut
--
PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/)
To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
