Under what circumstance you MUST choose Java or another language to develop a complex web application or system but NOT Coldfusion or Lucee?
Or is it an invalid question? If so, why?
This is a contentious topic and there are sure to be some circumstances raised where choosing another language over CFML might have an advantage, but…
Today CFML is pretty powerful and already lets you drop into Java pretty easily if there is something that needs doing in a way CFML can’t or when better performance is required. A good example of this is how Ortus drops into Java for completable futures. Integrating with Java from CFML is something that will only improve as the language evolves as well.
That said, there are valid reasons for learning and for using other languages. For example, Node and Javascript in general have a significantly larger toolkit, .NET is, essentially, free if you buy and use Windows and lets you write native apps quickly, PHP enjoys wide adoption and there are many well paying jobs available, Java and C/C++ let you get down to hardware level development, CFML lets you write robust web applications and APIs with significantly less code. The list of reasons to choose one language over another are many and varied.
Knowing more than one language is key to being a great developer. What you learn in other languages will make you a better overall developer regardless of which language you use in your career and is worth taking the time to do. Also happens to give you more and better job opportunities.
But are there valid reasons to choose one language over another for web development? There are some key differences between languages - syntax and functionality - but I’ve built some pretty complex applications used concurrently by many tens of thousands of users with CFML to rave reviews by customers, so I think any circumstance where one MUST choose another language to build a complex web application are sure to be rare.
HTH
– Denny