Whether one chooses Java, .NET, PHP, ColdFusion, or the many other language options, is less important than whether or not developers evolve with the language. There are a number of solid frameworks that help out of the box CF function in a modern way. However, a framework is not needed to make CF function in an object oriented way, for instance, but it certainly helps get their more quickly. I can’t speak to your specific situation, but it has been my experience that some CF developers that have been institutionalized (not crazy, but been in an organization for a long time) can become rigid and their skills are honed for that organization. But their knowledge is not deepened and they are often not given the time to learn new things. So some companies will hire a consultant to come in and sell upper management on the benefits of X technology, when what is needed is the continued training of their skilled workforce. Although, there may be an appeal to go to a seemingly cheaper language, with a more cost effective workforce, but you do get what you pay for. I worked for one company who switched to Java, but after doing so many stakeholders had buyers remorse because what they got was slower development cycles. They ended up keep CF for internal rapid development apps and integrated it with their Java apps.

My recommendation for companies looking to move away from CF, would be first reevaluate your current workforce. Did you hire true senior level developers? Have you allowed them to experiment with CF’s latest and greatest? Are you sending them to conferences to make sure their skills are sharp? Are you able to find qualified candidates for open positions? Are you wanting to move from CF to pursue the latest “fad” language or do you have a solid business case?

I don’t mind looking at new languages, but I also think organizations would do well to stay where there are larger communities of developers. CF does not have a huge number of developers but compared to Scala and Clojure we are massive. Those two are nice though, because like CF, I believe they are built on top of Java.

I think CF is still a bit monolithic, The ability to integrate into modern systems architectures is challenging and that can drive the change too.

To me this seems evident in the number of people learning Scala and Clojure. Well hopefully Adobe can address this. Cf is still a great language to work in.

Also, if you have any interest in the NOVA CF user group, please contact me, we’d love to have you out…check meetup.com NOVACFUG…i know it is hard with a young one, i have 2 under 4, but we are only in Tysons, so not to far.

again, congrats on the job.
dan

There seems to be a problem with the version of mod_jrun22.so I’m using. The console tells me that what I have is the wrong architecture which I understand to mean I have either 32-bit or 64-bit and need the opposite.

I’ve tried various solutions I have found online, but I haven’t had luck. Do you have any insight regarding this issue?

I remember playing with VirtualHostX. It is a good GUI tool for those more comfortable in that type of environment, but with all of the configurations I am managing I feel like I have more control modifying text files. Plus it forces me to utilize the geekier unix/linux/bsd-type tools.

Also in Mountain Lion Apple removed the web sharing control in the Share panel. So you are forced to use the terminal. However Tyler Hall, the guy who wrote probably the best Virtual Host GUI for Apache on the Mac, VirtualHostX, released a control panel pane that adds Web Sharing back to the System Prefs. This is very useful if you’re as lazy as I am.
http://clickontyler.com/blog/2012/02/web-sharing-mountain-lion/

That said his VirtualHostX has saved me from tearing out my hair multiple times, highly recommended.

larry