C# vs. C++

I recently got my hands on Visual Studio.net and it came with C#. Now, I've been using C++ for a while now, and am starting to get into the nitty gritty of windows programming (using GDI, not MFC) and I wanted to know if I should learn C# instead. I mean, I plan on learning some C#, but is C++ still more powerful? I've looked for articles on the subject, but I really wanted to hear some people's oppinions. What do you guys think? Is C# as clean as C++? Is it as powerful? As fast?

Thanks for your input!

-untwisted

There's a C Languages and C# forum in here... you may have better luck asking in one of those...

---John Holmes...

Actually I moved this from there, thought that the poster would get more un-biased answers here than double posting in the other two forums.

Oh... show's what I know.

Ya, I wasn't sure which to post in so I just posted in both. I did the same on the codeproject.com boards, and got an interresting result. It seems as though everyone in the C++ board disliked C#, or knew little of it while those in the C# boards seemed to give me good answeres :P

Thanks!

-Brian

If you're programming entirely in windows (which you must be to be considering C# at this point) and you're not programming very time critical things (games, CAD, etc), then C# can vastly decrease your development time. Ever made a GUI in VB? It's all kinds of stupid easy. You'll have to get used to the excessively object-oriented nature of C# (if you know any java, you'll feel right at home), but it's really not difficult to pick up. I've known several people, from both Java and C++ backgrounds, that now perfer C# to anything else. I'd give it a try.

It runs slower than C++, but not excessively slow. I mean, it's not java slow or anything. Plus, we have gobs of extra computing power in this world. There's even an unsafe mode in C# that lets you use real pointers, like C++, for real speedy number crunching secions.

AhhH! That's the kind of reply I've been looking for! Much thanks! My main problem is convincing a friend to switch to C# for a program we're going to be working on. He is stoneset in C++ and I don't think Bill Gates himself could change the guy's mind. This is the kind of reply that might just change it though! Much thanks!


-Brian

What kind of project, though?

A client/server windows application.

I'm pretty sure networking is vastly simplified in C#. Really, C# gets (pretty fairly) compared to java a lot (there's at least two threads in the C# forum for that comparison, on named "C# sucks!" and the other one more appropriate), and socket programming in java is a lot easier than C++. I could only imagine it got better with C#.

If you did the project in C++, would you use Visual Studio, or at least Windows?

We'd be using Visual studio, and visual C++ I guess. I'm trying to sway him toward using C#. I want this app done quickly. I'm willing to sacrafice a bit of speed. *sigh*

I'm sorry, but what is 'java slow'? Speed might have been an issue with java applications in the late 90's, but it is not an issue today. Perpetuating the myth that 'java is slow' is just foolish.

No no no, I've played with java for the past year now, and I have noticed a speed difference. Plus, there's no way around a bit of a speed setback when using the JVM, things always go slower with an intermediary involved.