HI..
1.Cold fusion has its syntax in form of tags.Just like u have JSP tags(actions) , coldfusion has a tag like syntax with all attributes specified for a specific kind of operation.This is one similiarity between JSP and ColdFusion.
2.ColdFusion has all the provisions like any other programming language has,like interacting with DB,Sending mails etc.
3.Its easily understandable and programmable using ColdFusion as its not case sensitive and has a syntactical structure as that of HTML.But u need to ensure that the tags are closed as it may not work well with Netscape Navigator.
4.Just like JSP even ColdFusion can run in any platform.
Cheers
Geeta