When comparing CFML vs MS PowerShell, the Slant community recommends MS PowerShell for most people. In the question“What is the best programming language to learn first?” MS PowerShell is ranked 64th while CFML is ranked 73rd. The most important reason people chose MS PowerShell is:
The help system is designed to evolve over time; running `update-help` downloads the latest content. When searching for help on items, you can simply type `help commandname` to get information about a command. If you're not sure what you're looking for, but have a rough idea, you can search on partial command names, or even specify specific verbs to get a list of commands potentially of interest; e.g. `help -verb write`. The information in help gives a good overview of the commands you're looking at, along with code examples, so you can see real-world usage without resorting to the web.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros

Pro Rapid application development
Get a web app up and running fast with stuff built right in to CFML! Frameworks make it even faster but lengthen the learning curve.

Pro Easily query a database
Newcomers can use an html-like syntax to query a database. Advanced developers can use a scripted syntax to execute stored procedures.
Pro Multiple engine implementations available
There are multiple engine implementations available including Adobe ColdFusion, Lucee, New Atlanta BlueDragon, Railo, and Open BlueDragon among others.
Pro Quick document and image manupulation
ColdFusion can quickly interact with PDFs , Spreadsheets to read/manipulate the data. There are a lot of built in functions to manipulate images quickly.
Pro Helpful Help
The help system is designed to evolve over time; running update-help
downloads the latest content.
When searching for help on items, you can simply type help commandname
to get information about a command.
If you're not sure what you're looking for, but have a rough idea, you can search on partial command names, or even specify specific verbs to get a list of commands potentially of interest; e.g. help -verb write
.
The information in help gives a good overview of the commands you're looking at, along with code examples, so you can see real-world usage without resorting to the web.
Pro Splatting
When calling a method with multiple parameters, rather than passing one variable per parameter you're able to "splat" one variable to the method, with the parameters taking their values from its properties.
Pro Pipeline
Commands can be chained via the pipeline, allowing output from one to be cleanly fed as input to the next.
Pro Chocolatey Package
PowerShell is installable through Chocolatey.
Pro Extensible
The language can wrap and interact with code written in other language's, making it highly extensible.
Pro Multi-Platform (ish)
Though Windows Powershell only works on Windows, the open source implementation Pash (http://pash.sourceforge.net/) allows the same language to be run on other OSes.
Cons
Con Little actual use either in academia or professionally
Con Very verbose
The commands themselves, as well as the output and error messages, are VERY verbose
