Should I learn C#? More than just a poll!

I'm still (see: C vs. C++ vs. C#) trying to figure out whether or not I should bother learning C#. Vote above to tell me whther or not you think I should (I already know BASIC, Assembler, Java, C/C++. does C# offer anything above these?), and below, list any URLs you think could be useful if I DO learn it, and your explanation for the above. Thanks!

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Sean Mackrory
[email protected]

The .NET Framework will be the future of programming for Windows and maybe other platforms. If you want to be part of it, you need to know VB.NET, C# or C++.NET. VB.NET is almost a new language in itself. Learning the new VB will take as much effort as learning C#. C++.NET is not yet complete, it still lacks a proper 'resource-editor'. C# is easy to learn if you know C++, plus the .NET framework makes many things easier.
I don't know what you do with the language, but I bet there are already classes to help you doing it ;)

hehe. I agree with nvoigt. C# is great in my opinion. There are new types of arrays (something like jagged arrays? I was reading an ebook on it dean sent me if you want it, nvoigt or sean)

It's really nice and easy and fun to code for windows in it, too. You can blatantly see where VB and Java (and actually C++, too) merge when you code for windows with it (manually, not with the editor).

Yes C# and VB.Net are really going to be worth learning - one good reason being that a lot of employers are already looking for people with these skills (i was talking to a couple of agencies last week or so ad they were telling me that the demand for people knowing these skills is increasing and they are getting requests from a number of companies for people with VB.Net and C# - they believe the demand will match that for Java and pass it by this time next year.)

PS. Ken - where did you get the C# e-book from can you send me a link or something as my course was cancelled (follow on from teh VB>net course debacle)

gimme your email address and I'll email it to you. I got it from Dean (troll_king). I actually gave it to rick to put up, but he doesn't like PDF for some reason.

thanks ken i'll pm you my address

If it's the same e-book that Dean offered me then it's part of the net framework, and is included in the visual studio.net download/cd's/dvd. Something like The C# Language Specification, and it's in one of the Framework folders (I can't remember which as it's not installed on the machine that I'm typing this on).

ahh if it is the same one then i have probably already got it then - i'll just go through my msdn stuff to find it

here's the exact name on it: (eBook - PDF) - Programming - C Sharp Language Reference 0.17b (Jun 2000).pdf

so you might want to search your HD for it.

wow, did a search on mine for it and it brought up every file on my HD...

Here, I'll just attach it instead

<quote>
I'm still (see: C vs. C++ vs. C#) trying to figure out whether or not I should bother learning C#.
</quote>

Did you see any of the threads on this board? There is basically nothing more than a hello world program written in C#. If you want to use .NET than C# offers full interoperability to all the .NET framework class libraries. It is related to C and C++ in terms of syntax and language features. You can write Windows applications using windows forms, web applications using web forms and distributed applications using web services. The code is compiled to an intermediate language (msil) which is the same code whether you use VB.NET, C#, C++.NET, Cobol.NET, etc. It is designed for the common language runtime (clr) which basically will allow any platform that has the .NET framework installed in it to execute the code. The platforms currently planned for .NET are MS Windows, Linux, Windows CE.NET, BeOS.... Assemblies allow the programmer to organize libraries and use global assembly cache for reusable code that is accessible to multiple applications. The real way to learn is to read a book on the subject and write some programs. I can't see how any satisfactory answer to your question can come out of here.

so .NET is an effort to make programs be able to run on ANY operating system, as long as it has the .NET Framework? That would be nice. Maybe more OS's may come up then, because they don't have to worry about compatablility. Or maybe I am wrong.

Is the .NET Framework like a virtual machine or something?

The .NET Languages are compiled to Intermediate Code. This intermediate code is compiled by a Just-In-Time-Compiler (JITer) on the target machine into machine depended code. For this to happen, the target machine needs the .NET Framework. So the code in the .exe file is system independant, it gets translated to the systems machine language once it's executed. This might in some instances even be faster than normal machine code, because the code can be optimized for the target machine, whereas a normal compiled version has to be optimized in a way that it's fast for all targets and has to omit specific optimizations. Note that this Intermediate code is never interpreted but always compiled, unlike Java.

.NET is a free standard. There exists an open source project called MONO to translate the .NET Framework to Linux. Microsoft however has not announced any ports to other systems, so if Apple for example wants .NET programs to run on Macs, they'd have to port the Framework, Microsoft won't do it for them.