[Zope] ColdFusion - I want to remain a Zopista, please help

[Thomas B. Passin]

Whether Cold Fusion might be a better choice depends on what you want to do.
CF is very good for creating individual web pages that connect to databases
and work with form and session variables.  Using stylesheets and custom tags
(written in CFML, Cold Fusion Markup Language), you can get a consistent
look and feel if you want to.  It's easier to connect to different databases
and write queries in CF, because the connection can be changed easily and
all your methods are not chopped up and isolated.  CFML is very easy to use
and read, and makes it easy to set local variables, something that is
awkward in Zope.

Also, on the Windows platform you can script COM objects, so you can get
tremendous functionality very easily if there happens to be a COM object
that does what you want.  The development environment (CF Studio) is
excellent, and supports external version control systems.

So if that's the kind of thing you want to do, and CF supports your
relational database, CF is probably the better choice.

If you want to do more, escape into Python, build complex frameworks, work
with databases that CF doesn't support, run on non-windows platforms, use
O-O features, want to customize or remove bugs, or have a low budget but can
afford the hours you'll need with Zope, then Zope would be the choice.

I use both.  One reason I use Zope is so I can use Python external methods.
With CF, I would have to write C++ custom tags or write and compile COM
objects (probably in C++ or VB); I'd much rather develop in Python.

Cheers,

Tom P