Good Coding Practices and the Real World

I was reading a blog post by Adam Cameron, An Insight Into the Mind of a CFML Developer, and, like Adam, had some similar thoughts to what Adam and others from the development community said. The essential gist of the comment that started this was, "ColdFusion used to be such a simple language; why did you (the developers) have to make it so complicated that an amateur can't master it anymore?"

It was attractive because it was easy and easy to make a database enabled application.

ColdFusion is still an easy language to learn; that has not changed. It is easier to make a database-enabled application in ColdFusion than it is in any other server-side scripting language. I've made database-enabled applications in ASP and PHP, too; ColdFusion makes it easier to develop database-enabled applications than either of those.

I think the community has ruined CF.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion. I think that ColdFusion has improved a lot from where it was. I've worked with CF5, CFMX7, ACF9, and ACF10. With a college education primarily using C++ and field experience in C/C++ and Delphi, I watched ColdFusion as it grew. Saying that CF has been ruined is like telling someone they're ugly because they don't look like a baby anymore. ColdFusion is no longer a child. It's more of a teenager: a bit gangly, still growing into adulthood as it attempts to mimic some of the more mature languages.

Ya all want to code in java script make everything OO, put everything in a cfc.

I love the black-box effect that object-oriented programming affords. Apparently, this poster does, too, but doesn't realize it. On the one hand, the poster says that he likes how easy it is to make a database-enabled application, yet doesn't like object-oriented programming. Object-oriented programming is at the core of modern, reusable code; it allows you the developer to simplify the tasks you do all the time.
Of course, that previous paragraph is making the assumption that developers want to make things easier for themselves. I specialize in tool-building, in making it easier for my co-workers and myself to complete tasks. Some developers like "job security", though. They don't want to build on their skills because doing so raises expectations. They don't want to make it easier to do tasks because doing so raises expectations. They don't want to make it easier for others to do the task because doing so reduces demand. In maintaining low expectations, these developers have allowed themselves to remain gainfully employed while stagnating developmentally.

make a bunch of simple stuff terribly complex.

This appears to be the proof of stagnation. Any developer truly interested in growth will realize the shortcomings of his own tools. You design a tool to do the best you can possible design it to do and, down the road, realize that you need it to do more or that you can make it work more efficiently. So you revisit your tool, apply lessons learned, and make it more powerful, more efficient, faster. This is as true of a developer working on his own tools as one who writes an IDE. C++ as a language has not changed significantly in the past few decades, but the compilers and libraries available for it have changed dramatically.

Phone gap mobile apps just add to that.

A ColdFusion developer is not required to build websites that double as mobile applications. With all the programming experience that I have, I still haven't written mobile applications or responsive websites. I have not been required to do so to this point. Would I like to? Yes! Am I terrified of it? To a certain extent. Why? Because I haven't done it yet. Treading into unfamiliar territory can be daunting, but it's the recluse who never steps out of his comfort zone because he's confronted with the vastness of the outside world.

CF should be simple, auto generate everything, and make all the jquery bs and the ajax that goes with it be behind the scenes.

Again, the disconnect between wanting a language that's easy to use and not wanting something that's object-oriented. ColdFusion does offer this. Compared to other languages, ColdFusion makes it super simple to make AJAX-enabled applications. You can generate an AJAX-enabled webpage without writing WSDL or any JavaScript using ColdFusion because of ColdFusion's UI tags. If the programming community is disgruntled with the quality of ColdFusion's implementation of these UI tags, the programming community has the same right to free speech that you have; if you don't want to hear it, you don't have to.

CF was once easy and simple and I could hire an 8th graded to code it, and it worked great.

ColdFusion is still easy. ColdFusion is still simple. You can still hire an eighth-grader to code in it and they would probably do a better job of it. Why? Eighth-graders are still adventurous. Got a problem with your computer? Consult your nearest ten-year-old. They're not bound by the fences that most adults have built for themselves: "I don't understand this new-fangled technology." "I don't think it can do that." "I've tried going in there and I just can't understand it." "People will think I'm stupid if they see me reading the manual."

Let me put this a different way. When I first started with ColdFusion, I found the ColdFusion UI tags and used them. I liked how they simplified things. Then I wanted them to do something more or do something a little different. They disappointed. I ended up writing my own custom tags to simplify display, grouping, and aggregation of data in a grid. I wrote my own tab control and then revisited it to utilize the jQuery UI Tabs widget. I wrote my own custom tag to handle pagination. I started using the jQuery UI Dialog widget. I started with the ColdFusion UI tags and migrated as more was required.

I have my qualms with ColdFusion and I'm not afraid to say that. I do take issue with developers who have lost the desire to continue improving themselves. I hope that such developers do not become the educators of future developers.