dlt123

You might have somewhat more control when you write something at a much lower level indeed. But most of the time, the functionality in the higher level languages is just fine (and most things can be extended, adapted, modified and what not to suit particular needs). Personally, for most desktop or web apps I'd rather use a high-ish level language and good set of libs, and concentrate on the problem to solve (how to solve it better), and have time to think about things like a good design/architecture (which greatly affect maintainability, readability, stability, and even speed more than any language choice will), instead of pointlessly spending my available time on low-level stuff, like writing tons of Win32 API calls, allocating memory (and chasing bugs where it's accessed after it's free'd, memory leaks, etc), fixing buffer overflows and all that endless "fun" stuff. For places where C# doesn't cut it, be it for resource usage or speed, e.g. microcontrollers, I normally use plain old C or quite often assembly (you can only fit so much code in a few KBs of memory, ISR's need to be very fast, etc). Database wise, there's a lot of nice stuff. ADO.NET is nice. SqlClient is great. And there's LINQ indeed, and several ORM's if you're interested e.g. NHibernate, as well as code generation tools & templates (to automatically write a data access layer for your database). And things like the enterprise lib. There's loads of resources out there. And the language itself (C#) is great for that purpose too (tons of useful things, like nullable types). And if you plan on having a web client for it too (not just a desktop app), then you can reuse a lot of your code for that too (everything but the presentation layer pretty much), and tons of "web stuff" is already done for you e.g. you want an authentication system? ASP.NET has a good authentication system built right in! (with users, groups, admin pages, pre-made components, page security, etc). You can build a solid, stable, reliable and app that performs great in no time at all. Sold... I'm with you. I am head long and foot in to learning C# and everything. I just installed VS 2008 Pro and bought a couple of great books on VS 2008 and C#. My months ahead are going to be spent learning all I can and enjoying my venture into this environment. I can agree with your assessment of C++, it gives you a lot of guns to shoot your feet off. Thanks for your feedback, Dennis

Well after some helpful prompting, I am moving over to C#. C++ would give me more control over some aspects of my programming, but it looks like C# will take a lot of time consuming aspects away and do some things for me... Also, I really like the LinQ aspect. I want to write a database application and C# looks like it will fit the bill just fine. Thanks for the feedback people. Now I'm off to start my journey up a new learning curve hill. Dennis

Just thought I'd mention this as an option, since you mention being an old Pascal programmer. FreePascal might interest you since you are looking for a Mac target as well. Lazarus may also be of interest to you. Of course, you can go to what became of Borland and look into Turbo Explorer as well. Thanks for the heads up... I used to use Borland when I programmed Pascal, but I think I will do extensive research into C# since it seems to have some really interesting functionality. Thanks for responding. Dennis

Thanks crahak, I am currently looking into C# and it looks like this may be the direction I go for my projects. C# looks pretty powerful. and like you said, I will finish learning C++ then move over to C#. I appreciate your feedback, Dennis

I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask but will do so anyway... I am in the process of re-starting my programming career again. I used to be a Pascal programmer many years ago and wrote several Shareware DOS programs back in the late 80's and early 90's. As you can see I've been out the picture for some time. I haven't programmed since then but would like to resurrect some of my old programs and write and port them over to the Windows environment. I am currently learning C++ but have been wondering if this is the way for me to go? I want to write Window applications and eventually maybe sell some over the net so I know I need to learn MFC as well. I also want to be able to have them run on either the Windows or MAC systems. I suspect I would just have to recompile the Win apps to work on the MAC right? Since I am learning C++ should I stick with this or should I seriously consider C# or something else instead? My gut feelings is to stick with C++ since it runs faster and allows for cross platform work and programs run on their own without a runtime module like C# or NET... If C++ is the way I should go, could someone recommend a good up to date MFC book that will help me learn MFC pretty fast. I currently have an older version of "Programming Windows with MFC" by Jeff Prosise which has been well received, but it's pretty dated compared to my new VS 2008 Pro environment. Any feed back is appreciated since I am still at the beginning of this road and would like to not waste too much time before writing my Window applications. Thanks in advance for fielding my questions. Dennis

Thankyou... I did do the poll. This looks like a nice community here so am looking forward to learning my C++ and being a member of MSFN. Have a great week. Dennis

Wow, there are a lot of posters from all over the world here. Nice to see such a diverse community... Just saying my Hello and reason for coming here... I am an old Pascal and C programmer who is migrating from C to C++ and the Visual Studio arena so have a lot of stuff to learn. I'm sure I will be able find information I'm looking for here at MSFN. Looking forward to meeting others here and learning more about programming in general. Best wishes. Dennis

Hi, I've got numerous Domains and have several pointing to my main website. At present, I only have two sites that are running autonomously... My radio station site, Coronal Winds Radio. This site is currently being updated with new broadcasting software and music format... so for now it's on automatic playing my OLD music format. The webpage still reflects the old music info. The new music format will be exclusively Deep Space and Electronic Ambient music. The other site is my Christian website RoadToBetterLiving which is a personal ministry topical website specifically designed for those who have traveled a similar road in life as me. Both sites are an ongoing work in progress and I have many improvements and plans for both in the near future. Take care, Dennis