C# is the past, the present and the future • Hacker News Board

Re: C# is the past, the present and the future

#51

Post by benologist » Fri, Jan 11, 2013, 7:31 PM UTC

WayneDB wrote: post #49

benologist wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mono is an option for the current generation to learn one less language. Outside of Windows it's not the default language for anything except Unity3d so curious kids who grow up with tablets might not have much reason to learn it.

So, nobody should learn a language unless it's the "default language" for a platform? What is Python, Ruby or PHP the default language of? Should anybody be learning Perl, Haskell or Objective-C in your opinion?

I'm not saying nobody should but I bet a shitload more people go with natively supported, which might be a better term than default.

And yeah this isn't at all specific to C#. Anything not natively supported suffers - just ask Flash who in a handful of years have gone from a defacto standard to a dinosaur.

Re: C# is the past, the present and the future

#52

Post by dromidas » Fri, Jan 11, 2013, 8:13 PM UTC

damian2000 wrote: post #15

I love C# as much as any MS fanboy would, but when people like Charles Petzold start abandoning C# and .NET for native C++ - http://blogs.msdn.com/b/msdnmagazine/archive/2013/01/08/1038... - to get more speed out of Windows 8 apps, then you have to start thinking maybe Microsoft is at least pushing C#/.NET out of the limelight - its not the be all and end all it used to be.

Not everything needs native C++ performance. I use C# all the time on things that need easy maintainability and to be as secure as I can reasonably make it.

Re: C# is the past, the present and the future

#53

Post by taylodl » Fri, Jan 11, 2013, 8:57 PM UTC

WayneDB wrote: post #44

forgottenpaswrd wrote: post #12

"I am a Software Engineer working with various techniques such as C#, WPF, WCF, ASP.NET MVC, ASP.NET and much more" "I spend most of my days working with the latest technologies from Microsoft." "In the darkest alley-ways we still have the people not wanting to touch C# with a pitch-fork because it’s behind Microsoft" In my opinion he lacks enough neutrality to make that statements(how he know MS tech is so great if…

One problem with your statement is that C# is not only "Microsoft tech". C# is an ECMA language for crying out loud.

Microsoft used Ecma as a standards repository, not a standards body. Ecma neither created nor endorsed C# - they received and recorded a standards submission from Microsoft thus making C# "Microsoft tech."

Finally, neither C# 3.0, 4.0 or 5.0 have been submitted to Ecma. So we can hardly refer to C# as an Ecma language for crying out loud! :)

Re: C# is the past, the present and the future

#54

Post by gebe » Sat, Jan 12, 2013, 6:29 AM UTC

benologist wrote: post #51

WayneDB wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, nobody should learn a language unless it's the "default language" for a platform? What is Python, Ruby or PHP the default language of? Should anybody be learning Perl, Haskell or Objective-C in your opinion?

I'm not saying nobody should but I bet a shitload more people go with natively supported, which might be a better term than default. And yeah this isn't at all specific to C#. Anything not natively supported suffers - just ask Flash who in a handful of years have gone from a defacto standard to a dinosaur.

I would say the experience is what matters. The user doesn't care what technology the developer used. If you can make gorgeous, fluid and speedy native apps with Mono and C# (which is very much possible) while at the same time making it easier to do cross platform development and deployment then why not.

Re: C# is the past, the present and the future

#55

Post by damian2000 » Sun, Jan 13, 2013, 2:28 AM UTC

dromidas wrote: post #52

damian2000 wrote: post #15

I love C# as much as any MS fanboy would, but when people like Charles Petzold start abandoning C# and .NET for native C++ - http://blogs.msdn.com/b/msdnmagazine/archive/2013/01/08/1038... - to get more speed out of Windows 8 apps, then you have to start thinking maybe Microsoft is at least pushing C#/.NET out of the limelight - its not the be all and end all it used to be.

Not everything needs native C++ performance. I use C# all the time on things that need easy maintainability and to be as secure as I can reasonably make it.

Totally agreed ... horses for courses etc. I also use C# the majority of the time ... but it seems like it will now be sharing the stage with C++ and possibly HTML/JS in terms of the recommended languages by MS.

Re: C# is the past, the present and the future

#56

Post by j45 » Mon, Jan 14, 2013, 3:51 PM UTC

WayneDB wrote: post #45

benologist wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have to agree, it occurred to me the other day that my almost one year old daughter might never have a Windows computer, in the same sense that people 10 years younger than me simply never had an MS-DOS one, except this time Microsoft didn't build the next platform.

Totally dude. Because C# only runs on Windows. You can't use it to build apps for the iPhone, Android, OS X or Linux at all. Nope.

I recently heard creating mobile apps for iPhone and Android was possible. Forget the library though. I can ask if you're interested to know.

Re: C# is the past, the present and the future

#57

Post by WayneDB » Mon, Jan 14, 2013, 5:51 PM UTC

taylodl wrote: post #53

WayneDB wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One problem with your statement is that C# is not only "Microsoft tech". C# is an ECMA language for crying out loud.

Microsoft used Ecma as a standards repository, not a standards body. Ecma neither created nor endorsed C# - they received and recorded a standards submission from Microsoft thus making C# "Microsoft tech." Finally, neither C# 3.0, 4.0 or 5.0 have been submitted to Ecma. So we can hardly refer to C# as an Ecma language for crying out loud! :)

I didn't say that ECMA created or endorsed C#. I said that it's an ECMA standard because no matter how much posturing anyone wants to do, it is one.

Features of C# 3.0 and 4.0 have too been included in the ECMA standard. So yes, we can definitely refer to C# as an ECMA language...for crying out loud. The standard is not updated as often as Microsoft or Mono release a new version of their runtime (ohnoes!), just like web standards when a browser Mfr. comes out with a new feature.