ON THE PAST...
"Back in 1997 I created a simple application in CF that presented a UI via the very first Web phone (the AT&T PocketNet Phone), and allowed me to turn on and off the lights and coffee maker in my house"
ON THE PRESENT...
"For the past few years I've spent a great deal of timing working on and thinking about the application of rich media, video, and media distribution technologies"
"It's hard to think of a kind of Internet or Web application that ColdFusion couldn't be used for building"
"most...institutions - learning institutions, government institutions, religious institutions, are augmenting the ways in which they organize, communicate, and behave based on the shifts and possibilities of the Internet"
ON THE FUTURE...
"Macromedia has a huge head-start [over Microsoft] in building both the runtimes and tools needed for this unique fusion of design, programming, media and interactivity that characterizes RIAs"
"The metaphor of self-published micro-content, feeds, syndication, etc. are taking hold, and they are moving into media worlds through podcasting, vlogging, and so forth"
"I'm very positive on this [Adobe-Macromedia] merger/acquisition. I think it's a natural fit, there is very little overlap for the companies, and it will give the combined company critical mass to innovate in design, production and development tools, and also in applications for corporations"
On the eve of ColdFusion's 10th Birthday, CFDJ Editor-in-Chief Simon Horwith sits down with one of the true pioneers of the Web, the man who started it all, Jeremy Allaire, to talk about the past, present, and future of ColdFusion...
Simon: Jeremy, ColdFusion turns 10 years old this month. Did you ever think, in the beginning, that it would last this long?
Jeremy: I think when we were working on ColdFusion in the early days, we definitely had the sense that what we were doing was going to have very broad, and very significant impact. We were shooting to help create a mass phenomenon with the Internet, and to put the power of the Web in everyone's hands. As such, I think we all believed that what we were doing would have lasting impact. 10 years and going strong, definitely didn't expect or even think about that kind of time horizon, but it's just great.
Simon: I agree; it is terrific. So, what have you been up to these days? Are you still involved in what goes on at Macromedia? What trends are you keeping an eye on?
Jeremy: Over a year ago, I founded a new company called Brightcove. We're building an online service for the distribution of video and television on the Internet. It's a very exciting project, really coming at a time when the television and media industry generally is sort of in a state of siege, driven by digital distribution and convergence. As such, for the past few years I've spent a great deal of timing working on and thinking about the application of rich media, video, and media distribution technologies, and marrying that with all the things I've learned in the past 10 years about the Internet, online services, e-commerce, and so forth.
As part of Brightcove, I'm taking advantage of a number of key Macromedia platform technologies, so am staying close to developments there, and provide feedback and input into what I'd like to see evolve.
Simon: Since you left Macromedia, ColdFusion has moved onto the J2EE platform and ColdFusion Components have introduced exciting new ways for developers to encapsulate business logic and take advantage of Object Oriented features. The most recent release, ColdFusion MX 7, introduced many new features such as a reporting engine and report design tool, Flash Forms, support for PDF and FlashPaper generation, and an event gateway framework that allows CFML applications to fully leverage the power of Java in order to communicate with other systems via a variety of protocols including SMS and to do things like listen for changes in the file system and asynchronously execute code. What are your thoughts on how the ColdFusion server has evolved? What do you think ColdFusion will look like in another 10 years?
Jeremy: I think it's just wonderful how the platform and product has evolved. We started the process of moving CF to Java back at Allaire, and while I was at Macromedia we released one of the most important releases in its history, ColdFusion MX. It's been really rewarding to see the ColdFusion team thrive, to innovate around features that customers have wanted for a long time, and to find unique synergies with the rest of the Macromedia platform. In many respects, it's hard to think of a kind of Internet or Web application that ColdFusion couldn't be used for building.
Another 10 years is a long time, and I have no idea how and where it will evolve. But, given the strength of the product-line, and the fact that it's experienced growth in the market right now, I suspect that, just as in the past, customers will lead the way in terms of features and innovations.
Simon: I agree - speculating on what the Web might be in 10 years is difficult. What about in the next year or two? I know Macromedia has been focussing heavily on delivering rich content to devices. Adobe cites this as a topic of major interest to them, in their Macromedia acquisition presentation. At Brightcove, you are focussed right now on delivering video and television via the Internet. My question is whether or not you believe that sometime soon, common everyday activities are going to become another form of network activity? Does the evolution of the Web include blurring the boundries between peoples' "online activity" and "real-world activity"? So far, most attempts to cross these boundries have been successful from a technology point of view, but not popular. Why is this and will this always be the case?
Jeremy: Well, I definitely think the biggest thing happening on the Internet right now is that we're finally seeing the promise of convergence come alive, and this is a consumer revolution - a revolution in all forms of communications and media. Many of the original promises of the Internet and convergence are finally coming together, and this will all be manifest over the next few years.
As for the connections to real-world activity, I guess I feel like that has been happening all along on the Internet, and is just getting deeper. So, explicit things like consuming media, or shopping, or communicating, are very "real-world activities," and then most other institutions - learning institutions, government institutions, religious institutions, are augmenting the ways in which they organize, communicate, and behave based on the shifts and possibilities of the Internet.
I guess one could go even deeper, and talk about monitors, sensors, and devices that are connected and embedded everywhere, and network connected, meshing with the physical world. I think that's all interesting, but probably not that practical for consumers, yet. There's a lot of this happening in industrial settings, so for example, real-time monitors of physical manufacturing infrastructure, that has dynamic feedback from software, that is modifying a manufacturing process, and so forth.
Simon: If, at some time in the future, the Internet is "built-in" to a larger portion of daily life, will traditional personal computer Web browsers become obsolete, because our phones, televisions, cars, and other applications will be Web browsers themselves? Do you still see application servers like ColdFusion playing an important role or do you think that Web programming will be more focused on programming for devices or plug-ins?
Jeremy: This is an accurate world-view, and it's been an idea that was important to ColdFusion very early, when we created things like CFHTTP, and then WDDX. We believed that connected applications would be device independent, and it would be helpful to have high-level abstractions for interacting with these devices, handling events from them, presenting data and so forth. Back in 1997, we were actually the first application server to support something called HDML (Handheld Device Markup Language), from Unwired Planet, in the first Web Phone. In fact, back then, I created a simple application in CF that presented a UI via the very first Web phone (the AT&T PocketNet Phone), and allowed me to turn on and off the lights and coffee maker in my house. I worked with a CF developer in Florida to build a CFX_Tag for X10 home automation control, and attached a controler to the serial port of my CF server at home, and had this all running. So these ideas were important, even back then, 8 years ago!
Simon: Now that you view ColdFusion from more of a distance and are keeping your eye on trends in general, what are your opinions about ColdFusion versus .NET? Any thoughts about XAML and Microsoft's upcoming Longhorn platform? Microsoft obviously paid a lot of attention to Macromedia's "Rich Internet Application" vision and message that Experience Matters - they even have an answer to "Halo" called "Aero." How do you think that Avalon, Aero, and the release of all of the components of the Longhorn platform are going to impact ColdFusion developers?
Jeremy: Well, I don't really compare ColdFusion to .NET, they're really different layers of the stack, so to speak. It's really Java vs. .NET, at least on the server-side, and clearly ColdFusion is aligned around the Java server stack, given its heritage as an open and cross-platform server environment. I wouldn't expect that to change.
I'm quite familiar with XAML and what Microsoft is attempting to do with Longhorn. It's quite clear that they've also got the Rich Internet Application religion, which I'm proud to have been a part of pioneering at Macromedia. Clearly, Microsoft will be successful with Avalon/XAML, but it will take a very long time to play out. Macromedia has a huge head-start in building both the runtimes and tools needed for this unique fusion of design, programming, media and interactivity that characterizes RIAs. Once Longhorn is in the market in late 2006, for it to reach 50% penetration of consumer desktops might take 4 years, whereas Macromedia can upgrade the entire Internet end-user community to a new client runtime in about 12 months.
In any case, I also expect Macromedia to be responsive to and interested in integrating its products with .NET and Longhorn, so I don't think developers need to be concerned about being left behind. Macromedia has historically been a very open and agnostic software provider, and has always tried to innovate and integrate with leading platforms from Microsoft, as had Allaire.
Simon: You were one of the early bloggers on the Web. I see that your company, Brightcove, like many other companies is taking advantage of blogging as a company tool (http://blog.brightcove.com). Microsoft has recently announced that they are adding support for RSS in the next version of Internet Explorer. What do you think of the "blog explosion" and the increasing popularity of RSS as a means for companies to syndicate information and deliver support, thoughts, and their message in general to their clients and to the public at large? Is this a trend that you think will continue or do you see RSS being replaced by something else (like video blogging for example)?
Jeremy: Like you said, I've been an advocate for and a practitioner of blogging, both personal and corporate. It's wonderful to see it hit the mainstream, though it seems that most corporations are just beginning to think about how to apply the approach. There's clearly an opportunity to use blogging and feeds deeply within companies, and that's barely happening now, and the external facing blogging for companies is also just getting started. So, I expect the next few years to be very interesting in these areas.
Clearly, the metaphor of self-published micro-content, feeds, syndication, etc. are taking hold, and they are moving into media worlds through podcasting, vlogging, and so forth. These are some of the themes we've been working on at Brightcove, so I expect it has a bright future!
Simon: Ben Forta has been publicly stating for years now that CFML skills alone are not enough for ColdFusion developers who want to further their careers or their applications. Once they've mastered CFML they need to also learn other programming languages. What advice do you have for ColdFusion developers?
Jeremy: I agree with Ben here, though not universally. Clearly, many Internet applications require code to exist in different places, and with a different rigor applied to each. The two most natural adjacent languages to learn for ColdFusion developers are Java and ActionScript.
Simon: One technology that is becoming more common for CF developers to be proficient in is XML. When XML first hit the scene it was the biggest buzzword since "World Wide Web" and "Java." Unfortunately, in the beginning there was a lot of talk but few examples of XML being put to good use. WDDX was one of the first good applications of XML to solving a specific need, followed later by SOAP Web Services. So far you and I have already mentioned RSS and XAML -- two very interesting recent applications of XML. Many ColdFusion developers are only now beginning to examine how they can leverage XML in their applications. Do you think there will be other very useful XML-driven technologies/standards in the future? If so, what might they be?
Jeremy: Sure, it's clear that for both data and programming, tag-based languages are here to stay, and growing in popularity. I have to say, it's incredibly rewarding, as we were among the first to really advocate for this in a big way. Given that CF is a great vehicle for working with XML-based formats, I think it will continue to intersect with any emerging standard in this space.
Simon: I've just got to ask - what are your thoughts on the proposed acquisition of Macromedia by Adobe Systems Inc.?
Jeremy: I'm very positive on this merger/acquisition. I think it's a natural fit, there is very little overlap for the companies, and it will give the combined company critical mass to innovate in design, production and development tools, and also in applications for corporations. I know that Adobe is very excited about expanding their role as a platform company, and the entire family of Macromedia software - tools, servers and applications - will likely get even broader exposure and distribution through this new company.
Simon: I agree - this is a very exiting time for people using ColdFusion and the other Macromedia products. Is there anything else you'd like to say to our readers?
Jeremy: Keep developing with CF, keep telling Adobe what you need/want, and we'll be back in touch when they release ColdFusion 10!
Simon: I hope that in another 10 years, we can sit down and reminisce on ColdFusion's 20th birthday. Thank you very much for taking the time to share your views on the past, present, and future of ColdFusion and of the Web in general.