[jeelliso]

Hello,

I'm a long-time Unix/Linux developer who is looking to try out some Windows development. I took a test-run of Visual C++ Express and noticed that their C++ implementation was a little odd. Then I got to asking around and found out that most people don't develop in C++ for this and other reasons.

So, what does everybody here that develops in Windows use? I've been suggested Basic and C#.

I'll be doing mostly simple programs and definitely no games. I have a lot of experience in programming so I'll probably be doing some network programming.

Thanks,

[ryno]

If you're doing mostly simple programs than C# and .NET is probably the way to go. You can crank out simple applications a lot faster than in c++. There are trade offs though. You aren't able to manage memory directly. You will enjoy the object oriented aspect of C# though.

If you're a C++ programmer I guarantee you will absolutely hate Visual Basic. It's just... it's just not very good.

If you want to learn about GUI programming using C++ then I suggest you read up on the win32 API. It takes a while to learn, but it's well worth it. You can also create GUI applications using C++ and .NET. I have very little experience with this, but it seems pretty easy. The big plus about it is you are able to use elements of both .net and the STL.

[jeelliso]

Sorry if this is a stupid question but what exactly is .NET? Is it its own programming language, a programming interface, neither, or both?

Thanks for the response though, that was exactly what I was looking for.

Thanks,

[ryno]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NET_Framework

That should include the necessary information.

[forrestcupp]

C# and .NET are very easy to use to make GUI programs. C# is similar to C++, but there are some differences, one being that it is very easy to create windows programs. The problem with .NET programming is that the end-user has to install .NET 2.0 to run the programs. The problem with Visual C++ Express is that it doesn't come with MFC, which means programming windows software in straight win32 is a very big pain. I enjoyed programming in C#, but because I wanted native programs, I went to Visual C++ Express with wxWidgets. It's a pretty good framework for making native GUI software, and whatever code you write will be portable to other OS's.