C++/C#/Java

regulus · 20 Aug 2009 at 18:43

I'm curious to know which one of those languages is the most widely used in the IT software industry. As I understand C++ is used mostly in the heavy lifting code such as writing games, OS's, etc. C# always struck me as a language used to build pretty Window Forms to use internally in your company. Java, I don't know much about.

It's basically just to satisfy my curiosity regarding programming.

dangerstat · 20 Aug 2009 at 20:10

Java's probably the post popular globally, C++ second. C# third. But that said, on Windows platforms that Java and C# probably swap over.

Darg · 20 Aug 2009 at 21:18

C# XNA is getting better and better for making games in. It might not be quite as powerful as C++ but a well written game in XNA can look as good as many professional games.

In general use though C# and java are used for networking and easy forms. Javas not as easy to make a GUI in as C# but on the other hand Java supports the various networking solutions out there a bit more then C#.

C++ is used like you said for big programs that need more access to deeper systems like games and heavy programs like phone centre routing etc.

For OS though it's almost always C and assembly that's used. C++ is a higher level language then C.

andrewdodd13 · 20 Aug 2009 at 22:24

As above for the C dialects.

Java is mainly used at enterprise level for things such as Business Intelligence and Data Warehouse front-ends and the like. JDBC does knock the crap out of Microsoft's ODBC.

Microsoft have coded an Operating System in C# called Singularity, it's meant to be ridiculously stable and secure, but it wasn't available for public consumption last time I checked.

RobH · 21 Aug 2009 at 02:20

Java is also becoming a lot more popular in the open source community as it's cross platform by design and has recently become open source, it's also the main language used by educational institutions across the contry to teach object-oriented programming.

andrewdodd13 · 21 Aug 2009 at 07:10

RobH said:
Java is also becoming a lot more popular in the open source community as it's cross platform by design and has recently become open source

Even after becoming open source there's still a lot of hate for it in the open source community. Much of this is a throwback to when it was proprietary and so slowwww. (ie. JRE 1.4)

But yes, educational institutions do use it to teach OOP. Although having been at one of these educational instutions and learned Java, I can tell you that the hardcore C/C++/PERL programmers hate it, but the newbies coming from VB love it for it's power (compared to VB), but hate it for the crap forms.