If you were going to learn a programming language..

Psyk · 13 Nov 2007 at 08:35

RobH said:
I don't mean to hijack the thread but can someone explain .NET to me? I have programming experiance in Java & PHP and have used C a few times, I have never really ventured to the MS side of programming. If I understand correctly .NET is like the Java VM and whereby programs are converted to some sort of bytecode then execured by the .NET runtime. I'm just a little confused with VB.NET and C#, C++ J++ etc.

Yeah it is more or less like the Java VM. Several languages can compile to CLR (that's the name of the .NET bytecode), VB, C# and I think it's possible to compile C++ into it but I'm not 100% sure on that (tbh I'm not sure why you'd want to, might as well use C#).

voodooflux · 13 Nov 2007 at 08:48

Another good quote from Dijkstra...

Edsger W. Dijkstra
The use of COBOL cripples the mind; its teaching should, therefore, be regarded as a criminal offence.

Mr Jack · 13 Nov 2007 at 10:09

C#, or PHP, would be my choices. Both languages you can build functional things in quite easily and both capable of being used in serious projects.

Admiral Huddy · 13 Nov 2007 at 10:20

If your are doing it for possible employment, then look where the market pays the most. I know that a decent C++ contractor with banking background pays around £60-£80 per hour depending on experience at our bank.

robmiller · 13 Nov 2007 at 11:16

C#. It's a great language, it gives you great results quickly (which is pretty important when learning) and Visual Studio is pure sex. The Express Edition of Visual C# is free, too (download the 2008 beta).

voodooflux · 13 Nov 2007 at 11:27

robmiller said:
Visual Studio is pure sex.

Now that's a marketing slogan

RobH · 13 Nov 2007 at 11:34

Is Visual Studio 2005 the latest release (non-beta) version? Also what are the executables generated by .NET like? In Java you are using about 20MB od RAM before your program does anything.

voodooflux · 13 Nov 2007 at 11:48

RobH said:
Is Visual Studio 2005 the latest release (non-beta) version?

Yep, with Service Pack 1.

RobH said:
Also what are the executables generated by .NET like? In Java you are using about 20MB od RAM before your program does anything.

Alas .NET is much the same. Obviously a lot depends on what assemblies are used within your project, but a vanilla C# WinForms application consumes around 15Mb, while a simple console app seems to grab around 14Mb.

topbanana · 13 Nov 2007 at 12:40

RobH said:
Is Visual Studio 2005 the latest release (non-beta) version?

Yes, but 2008 is being released within the next two weeks.

peetee · 13 Nov 2007 at 19:47

a lot of people suggestiong java, just had something called processing.org a fairly new open-source language based on java suggested to me to use for my dissertation.
might want to give that a look. looks pretty good, havnt really done much research into it as im not v motivated atm

Glaucus · 13 Nov 2007 at 19:54

.net which one depends what you want..

.net is hugely powerful and simple. It is simply awesome compared to the others, especially if you use visual studio and not the free programs.