Journal Journal: C# (C Sharp) - Demon Spawn or Useful Language?
War Journal Entry #328
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Preface:
I like writing command-line applications. I *love* building web-based applications. I like *designing* GUI applications, but loathe building them because of ugly toolkits and APIs.
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I'm actually learning C# and liking it!
Good lord, have I lost my mind? Possibly.
Here's how I got here:
1. Saturate mind with 16-bit DOS C.
2. Create my own library for DOS programing. (Fun!)
3. Then C++, also DOS.
4. Then Linux -- Perl, C, C++, you name it.
5. Then 32-bit Win console C and C++.
6. Then C and Win32 API. (Not too fun)
7. Then C++ and MFC. (Less fun - IMHO)
8. Then create my own library for Win32 programming.
9. Finally get fed up.
10. ???
11. C#! (Profit?)
So here I am. And I like it! Here's why:
1. Clean, modern.
2. String handling doesn't suck ass!
3.
4. Easy as hell to create applications.
5. Kind of brings back the fun of building applications.
Disadvantages:
1. End-users must have the latest
dotnetfx.exe - about 23Mb) installed to run my C# applications.
2. See #1.
3. See #1.
4. Not cross-platform (yet - possibly never).
5. It's not C/++.
In short, this is fun and I'm glad I took the risk, bought the book*, and dove into it.
C# VS.NET 2003 is about $100. It's a heck of a deal.
As I pointed out in the disadvantages, my biggest gripe is that I sure wish my programs were easier to distribute. 23Mb of Framework for 16Kb of application is painful and I don't believe Windows 95 is even supported!
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*The book I'm using as my guide is _C# and the
It assumes you already know how to program in a C-like language, so there's no scurvy filler like "a variable is used to store a value..." to skip over.
