A Brief History of ColdFusion
by Robert Marks
In the summer of 1995, a one-man operation released a remarkable new product. It was named ColdFusion 1.0, and was designed to help HTML programmers create database-oriented Web applications.
“[It] was very early in the history of the Web,” recalls Adam Berrey, one of the founders of the modern-day Allaire. “The vast majority of sites being built were static HTML. What little interactivity that was available was provided through simple CGI scripts.”
ColdFusion 1.0 and the later version 1.5 were very simple programs. Their primary feature was database connectivity, through a primitive tag-based script called “Database Markup Language” (DBML). Creating version 1.5 was a fairly dramatic improvement, however; it introduced system service architecture and e-mail integration, and allowed compatibility with C++ for coding extensions. But since it was the first in a new field, ColdFusion soon faced stiff competition from Microsoft.”Microsoft ASP was created by a team of developers who were Allaire competitors acquired by Microsoft,” Berrey notes. “They had a competing product called DBWeb that was largely a failure in the marketplace, but they were working on a new technology in 1996, called i-Basic, which eventually became ASP.”
But ColdFusion made a great leap forward with version 2.0, which included such advances as 150 new functions, support for new protocols (e.g. POP), looping, variables, typeless expression evaluation, and a number of other language enhancements. These enhancements would prove to be just the beginning; 1997 also saw the addition of custom tags, server side tags, a search and indexing system for text, and ColdFusion Studio.
In January 1998, ColdFusion 3.1 was released with a host of new features. It offered greater support for Windows NT and Sun Solaris systems, and also featured automated page generation and tag completion. A built-in page preview window and HTML syntax checker rounded out the product, keeping it at the top of the market. In early 1999, ColdFusion tackled the enterprise market. With enhanced security and a new multi-threading service, version 4.0 managed to present a product capable of producing applications for multiple servers.
“From day one, ColdFusion’s competitive edge has been ease-of-use,” Berrey observes. “At the time it was first released, ColdFusion was really the only way to easily build robust, database-based web applications. It continues to offer unparalleled ease-of-use and productivity, along with a great deal more power and flexibility.”
But regardless of modern ColdFusion’s many selling points, Berrey maintains that there is still more work to be done. “We’re constantly pushing to make ColdFusion better. We have two releases planned this year: first, a new version on the existing architecture, ColdFusion 5.0, which will add some powerful new features such as dynamic graphing and user-defined functions. Then we plan to release a next-generation architecture that will allow developers to deploy their ColdFusion applications on a J2EE server.”
With so much to come, Allaire continues to maintain the same bottom line that it started with, back in 1995. “I know that everyone says this, but really, user-driven design has been at the center of every release of ColdFusion,” Berrey says, proudly. “We’ve tried to take complex technologies and make them accessible to a broad range of developers.”
ColdFusion简史 By Roboert Marks
1995年的夏天，一位创新的工程师向世界发表了一个新产品；它被称作ColdFusion 1.0，主要的设计用途是用来帮助撰写HTML的程序设计师们能够设计出与数据库互动的网页应用程序。
『ColdFusion在那个时候真的是一项新创举。』Adam Berrey 回忆着；他是modem-day Allaire的创始人之一。『在那个一切都还是静态的网页时代，几乎一切都要仰赖CGI程序。』
ColdFusion 1.0 还有后来的1.5版本其实都非常地简单。它们主要的功能是利用DBML (Database Markup Language)作为与数据库连接的主要途径。而后来1.5版本涵盖了系统服务架构、邮件整合以及提供与C++程序语言整合的扩充接口，产生了相当戏剧化的发展。但它后来也面临当老大本身所会面临的竞争问题，『微软随后推出了购并来的ASP，这个本身就是由Allaire的竞争者所开发出来程序语言』Berrey 补充说道。『他们原本推出叫DBWeb在市场上并不很成功，不过经过了1996年的努力，一项被称作是ASP前身的i-Basic产品便被成功地推到市场上』。
但是ColdFusion也在版本2.0时作了一个相当大的提升，其中包含了150种新功能、支持新通讯协议(如 POP)、循环、变量、不限格式的计算表达方式，还有很多程序语法的改善，而这些都只是个开始；1997年同样也推出了客制化的卷标、服务器端卷标、支持纯文字的检索机制以及ColdFusion Studio 。
到了1998年1月，3.1版的ColdFusion又发表了一堆新功能。其中包含了对Windows NT 以及Sun Solaris支持的改善，另一方面也将自动化页面产生以及卷标部份都作了一次完整性地改良。其中可以针对编辑过后的页面作立即性的预览与HTML语法检查功能，让它顿时成了市场上的龙头老大。在1999年刚开始的时候，ColdFusion是瞄准tackled企业市场的。挟带着有权限控管以及多执行绪服务的功能，ColdFusion 4.0 开始具有分布式架构的架势。
『从第一天开始，ColdFusion的挑战便是在创造简单易用的开发环境，』Berrey这么说道。『在它第一次公诸于世的时候，ColdFusion在当时可说是快速撰写可与数据库连结程序的唯一途径。它后来的版本也维持它一贯的简易使用、提升生产力以及具有开发弹性的这几项特点。』
虽然提到这么多ColdFusion的强力卖点，Berrey仍然觉得有相当多的地方需要改善。『我们仍然努力不懈地要让ColdFusion变得更好。我们在今年有两个版本的产出计划：第一个是在现有5.0架构上加上如dynamic graphing以及使用者定义函式的功能。之后我们将会推出新一代的开发架构，一个让开发者可以将他们的ColdFusion程序运行于J2EE之上的新架构。』
有这么多事情要作，Allaire却还是一直维持它从1995年以来的初衷。『使用者需求导向设计的确是ColdFusion每一版产出的中心思想。』Berrey骄傲地说。『我们一边在发展一项复杂的技术，同时也在使它能够让广大的开发者能够接受。』
