<cfquery name="Company" datasource="yourDB">


      select VendorID, Vendor


      from tblVendor


      order by Vendor


</cfquery>





<cfoutput query="Company">


        #Vendor#, #VendorID#<br>


</cfoutput>

<%


Option Explicit


Response.Expires = 0


Dim objConn, objRS, strQ


Dim strConnection 14:


Set objConn = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")


strConnection = "Data Source=somedatasource;"


objConn.Open strConnection


Set objRS = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Recordset")


Set objRS.ActiveConnection = objConn


strQ = "select VendorID, Vendor "


strQ = strQ & "from Vendor "


strQ = strQ & "order by Vendor"


objRS.Open strQ


%>





<%


While Not objRS.EOF


Response.Write objRS("Vendor") & ", "


Response.Write objRS("VendorID") & "<br>"


objRS.MoveNext


Wend


objRS.close


objConn.close


Set objRS = Nothing


Set objConn = Nothing


%>

Having used classic ASP, ASP.NET and coldfusion, I would say that generally speaking, coldfusion is the easiest.  ASP.NET is easier than classic ASP, but still not as easy as coldfusion.

However, as others have mentioned, it depends on what you are trying to build.  The larger an application gets, the more tangled it becomes when written in coldfusion and similar languages.  Because of Coldfusion's limited support of OOP, its being loosely typed, as well as its multitude of code resuse models (User defined functions, Coldfusion components, custom tags/cfmodules or cfincludes) large projects become much harder in ASP than in ASP.NET.  ASP classic, being rooted primarily in VBScript, was also loosely typed and very much procedural, and suffered from many of the same problems.  This is generally easier to get started, because you don't have to think constructing objects or convert string to numbers, dates to strings, or any of that. 

However, once the project gets large, you start noticing weird behavior and it becomes difficult to alter or debug the code.  The lack of structure inherent in loosely typed languages and procedural coding tend to come back to haunt you.  Simply put, it becomes more and more difficult for me the programmer, to precisely convey to the runtime what I want it to do.  Thus, ASP.NET and the .NET framework as a whole, are primarily OOP, strongly typed frameworks.  Even Visual Basic.NET is far more OOP and gives you the option of being strongly typed (option explicit, option strict).

Also, with .NET, i can write components that work in web, windows, services, console and all sorts of different kinds of applications and even other languages.  WIth Coldfusion, I don't think you can do this very easily without learning some Java.  (Someone correct me if I'm wrong here.)  Must of us like to break up large applications into the traditional 3 layers: Presentation, Business and Data Access, so that the latter to pieces can be reused in multiple applications.  This is also harder to do in CF.

I use ASP.NET almost exclusively now, although I will always have a soft spot for coldfusion as it is the very first scripting language i ever used.  For non-programmers or people very new to programming, I suggest Coldfusion. Once you want to start building. large, enterprise level applications, I suggest .NET.

Fregas

I largely agree with Fregas.  I started coding with CF in early '97, just as version 2 was released.  It was such a powerful tool.  But I feel that it was inevitable that Microsoft would eventually catch up and surpass most of CF's capabilities.  It took years but for the most part, I think that point occurred around one to two years ago.  Around two to three years ago is when I decided to make the switch, myself.

It is true, to be sure, that routine things like simple queries are much easier to write in CF.  But it was just a matter of time before the integration into web services and other aspects of the server platform made .NET the tool of choice for most purposes.  Furthermore, one of the great things about the early days of CF was the presence of a great community of developers, plus there rapidly came to be a treasure trove of applications and code snippets, building blocks one could use and assemble into rapid and flexible deployment of powerful applications.  When Macromedia bought Allaire, the original creators of Cold Fusion, in my experience that sense of community began to dissolve, fragment and dissipate.  Many of the original posts to the original discussion boards, for instance, were no longer to be found plus the character and perception of the product changed irreversibly.  Microsoft, on the other hand, has cleverly embraced open source and encouraged the formation of a developers community which, to me, is reminiscent of what Allaire had back in the day but has far surpassed its noble predecessor.

Shane Miller