[MarcoRyan]

Hi,

I am writing my SQL Server 2000 theory exam tomorrow. The following day I do my practical exam.
Its time for me to make a final decision on which language to choose. The possibilities I am considering are Java, C# or VB.NET. Less likely C++.
Which language should I go for? Which is the easiest/hardest? Which pays better? Which is less restricted?
Some other friends at college say that Java is a harder language...?
Let me know what you think.

Thanks!

[Iron_Cross]

If it uses SQL Server you HAVE to go with C#. I would choose C# any day of the week of anyone of those other choices when it comes to integrating with a database like that. It's flexible, poweful, and quite easy to use as well.

[MarcoRyan]

I guess I didn't make that clear. I am not using SQL with any of the languages. Its simply part of the course I am doing. I do SQL and then I start with the programming language. There isnt a need to integrate with SQL. Do you still sugest C#?

I'm just looking at an overall picture. Which should I go for?

[Iron_Cross]

http://www.tech-forums.net/showthrea...threadid=31371

Sure.
I'm a big fan of C#, and it's still an incredible language even if you're not using SQL.
To be honest though, it all depends on what you're wanting to do with the language. I enjoy C# because it can do just about anything. In short I'd look at it like this:

Windows Applications:
1. C# (Very easy to use, very powerful)
2. C++ ( Much more difficult. Very Fast, Ver Powerful)
3. Java ( Fairly Easy, Slow, Platform-Independant)

Cross Platform Applications (for *nix programming)
1. Java ( Tries to be Write-Once-Run-Everywhere)
2. C++ ( If standards are followed, can be cross platform)
3. C# ( Still "technically" only for windows...but the Mono Project has brought C# to the Linux platform)


For *nix applications
1. C++ (Used in MANY linux/unix applications)
2. Java (used in quite a few because of it's cross-platform nature)
3. C# (Very new to the Linux world becuase Mono is still new)


For Console applications
1. C# ( Extremely easy )
2. C++ ( Greate flexibility, can get very complicated, extremely fast)
3. Java ( meh )

Ease of Use
1. Java ( Very easy )
2. C# ( Basically "Java" + "C++" very easy, very poweful. Adds some more complicated features than Java, but you don't have to use them)
3. C++ ( Extremely complicated)

Flexibility (In terms of what they can do)
1. C# / C++ ( These two pretty much tie )
2. Java ( a little behind the times )

Speed
1. C++ ( very fast )
2. C# ( quite fast, but still uses a CLR )
3. Java ( Getting faster but still kind of slow )

Game Programming (Commercial quality)
1. C++ ( Quake III was made with C++ )
2. C# ( Since you can use DirectX 9.0 and greater now, you could do something really awesome with C#. But nothing yet has been done with it, because C is much faster)
3. Java ( Used as the main scripting languages in a few games. I wouldn't try making anything bigger than an applet though )

[jinexile]

Peronsally if it were a choice between Java, C++, C# and Vb.net for a test, I would go with the most forgiving language, vb.net, you won't spend half has much time looking for little syntactical errors you would encounter in Java/C++/C#. Its just as powerful and flexable as c# there is absolutly no difference in speed (since they are both converted to the CLR)

[Iron_Cross]

VB will teach you some very bad programming habits though...And you're essentially saying, "Choose the language where you can be laziest."
Is this the youth we have to look foreward to? Dear God, I hope not.

[jinexile]

I misunderstood what he was asking I thought he was going into an exam and had to choose a language from what he already knows.

If its the first language you're gonna learn... best its C++.

I've said it before... C++ is like the English language of programming. Once you learn it dialects like C#, Java, PHP, Perl, etc are easy to pick up.

[Iron_Cross]

But it's a hard language to start with because it's so large and so complex...Although I do agree with your last statement

[jinexile]

Indeed its is complex, but I think it seperates the men from the mice, once you learn C++ everything else is a cake walk... well there is Assembly but thats going the way of fortran and hardcore only programming

[Iron_Cross]

But once you get adjusted to programming by means of almost any language (I say almost because some languges just don't cut it....like VB). Sure, once you know C++ all derived languages are going to be easier, but on the other hand, you're going to have to un-learn a lot of things as well. I personally think it's better to just get comfortable with the idea of programming by means of an easy language (like Python), then move on to something more complex.