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BlueDragon lumped with "other alternatives" as "limited, buggy, and simplistic". Here's my rebuttal.
On another mailing list (the Bay Area CFUG list), a reader pointed out BlueDragon (and "other alternatives") as a way to solve another reader's need for a new CFML server. Sadly, he characterized the alternatives (and us, by association) in quite a poor light. My response follows (and I've pointed the list members to this blog entry, as I realize that some in the community don't like to see something like a BD "sales pitch" on a generic CF mailing list. This is more of an apologetic, though!)
While I do appreciate your sharing that BD is an alternative that Jim might want to consider, I think it's a little unfortunate to label it under the umbrella evaluation that you have:
> You could try to use BlueDragon or other CFML interpreters. They don't have a lot of the features
> of the real macromedia product and there are many bugs in the interpretation. If you are doing
> extremely simple things, this might get you started. You might want to consider getting the
> macromedia product for production applications.I realize you lumped all the alternatives together in your preface there, but lest anyone think you were referring to BD, I'd really like to respond to the assertions. Not defensively, but just to avoid any misunderstandings.
BlueDragon does indeed have "a lot of the features of the real macromedia product". In fact, it lacks only 4 tags from CFMX 6.1: CFAPPLET, CFGRID, CFREPORT, and CFCHART (we do have CFGRAPH and it's been enough for most of our customers, but will be addressing that specific tag in the future).
While some may want to compare us to CFMX 7, the new tags it introduced just aren't a focus for us or most of our customers right now. We don't exist to "steal folks from MM" but rather to solve problems that CFML developers have that are not being solved by MM. For many, they're not interested in what 7 adds but rather tjhey have problems with their current code and deployment (whether on CF 4, 5, 6, ot 7) that they need resolved. If someone needs something that we offer, that's why they'd consider us.
And we offer an awful lot, not the least of which is the first deployment of CFML on .NET (to add to our 4 years of running on Linux and non-.net Windows, as well as any J2EE server). Indeed, our standalone edition has run on OS X for a couple of years, something added in CFMX only as of 7.01.
You say "there are many bugs in the interpretation". Again, you may have had the other alternatives in mind, but I'd like to point out that BlueDragon is entering its 4th year as a product and 7th year as a technology (some may recall its heritage as TagFusion, an implementation of CFML on Java that predated CFMX itself). The bad news is that some may have experienced issues early on in its life and still hold them against the product. (How many of us still have to combat the accusation that "ColdFusion can't scale", even though CFMX's was designed expressly to address that accusation.)
The good news about that heritage and length of existence is that with tens of thousands of pages tested against it (in our own regressions and our customers' code bases), most bugs have long been sorted out. (Hey, we didn't have Macromedia's source code to work from, so where things are undocumented or vague, there is always the chance of a miscue. We're very fast at responding to any such observed bugs.)
Finally, you assert the alternatives may be ok for someone "doing extremely simple things" but not "for production applications". Again, speaking for BlueDragon, we have hundreds of paying customers (and several hundred more using the free edition) who are indeed using it in production.
In fact, many know that MySpace, the largest CFML shop on the web and the 4th highest-trafficed site in pageviews per day (and on the cover of Business Week last week), is in the midst of moving their hundreds of servers to BlueDragon, our .NET edition. Substantial portions of the site are now running BlueDragon and more are moved all the time. I'm not aware of any major compatibility issues contributing to the pace of the upgrade. It's just a big site and environment, and they're juggling many priorities.
MySpace--and all our customers--wouldn't make the move without adequate testing and evaluation, and of course they do it to gain many benefits. I won't elaborate those (of BlueDragon in general and of the .NET edition in particular) here, but I do feel that I needed to respond to the comments lest anyone misinterpret them.
Hope that may be helpful to others in responding to folks who may express similar thoughts.
"We're very fast at responding to any such observed bugs."
Well said! BlueDragon can scale very well and it's not an "alternative",
it's a way to go.
Charlie, your copy repeats this paragraph:
Thanks, Nando, Alex, and infused. Alex, the issue of standardization of
CFML has indeed been brought up several times (by folks thinking it would
be a good idea). We see that as something that would have to involve (if
not be initiated by) Macromedia, and there's been no sense that they're
interested in that (rather understandably). Infused, I have fixed the
duplicate paragraph. Thanks.
Chiming in late here but I bring a funny to the table.
Hi Craig, yes, that's indeed curious. Don't know what's up with the site,
but at least we can see that the error shows it's not running BD!