Dynamic Development

[savantcreative]

I need to learn dynamic development. I know XHTML and CSS and own Dreamweaver CS3.
Should I learn PHP or ColdFusion? What is the best way to learn? If I go with CF and have the developer version, will it cost me anything?

[TJ111]

I'd say PHP just because there's alot more tutorials/howto's floating around the net. Plus it's probably a little better for just handling dynamic pages then CF, which is more tailored to RIAs.

[savantcreative]

Thanks for your input but I still need more suggestions and direction
Best regards

[NogDog]

PHP: Open source (free), can be used on pretty much any web platform, widely used on the web for all sorts of sites. Lots of 3rd-party scripts and applications are out there, most of them also open source. You can easily install it on your PC to start learning it via all-in-one install packages such as WAMP (http://www.wampserver.com/en/).

ColdFusion: Proprietary product of Adobe. There is a free developer version that you could download to use for learning it, but to actually field applications on an internet domain you will need to purchase a licensed version (or find a web host with CF available - which will cost more than a host with PHP support). You get some more built-in development tools, and support and training are available from Adobe, but then you can get similar support from Zend.com for PHP.

As far as I can see, PHP is used a lot more than CF, but learning either one will have the side benefit of making it easier to learn the other. But, if you really want to make yourself as marketable as possible in server-side programming, Java and C# are where the money is.

[savantcreative]

Thanks for your great reply. The most tempting arguement that I am fighting is that CF is faster to develop with and that it integrates well with Dreamweaver CS3

Regards

[NogDog]

There's certainly an advantage to using visual development tools when it comes to rapid development. The downside is that if you depend on them to do the work and never really learn to do the programming yourself, then you're stuck when you encounter a functional requirement that the tools do not have built-in support for. Then you may find yourself wading through code generated by those tools to try to figure out how to modify it to do what you need, or having to manually write the code from scratch. Tools can be very useful, but if you are too dependent upon them, they can become a crutch that keep you from ever walking and then running on your own.

I'm not saying don't use CF or DW, just that I think as you start out learning CF (or any other language - even HTML and CSS), start by learning how to code without the visual tools. Then once you have the basics down pat, you can start using the tools to streamline your development process where it makes sense to do so, but you can still get "down and dirty" in the source code when you need to.