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C++ Development: win32 or .NET?

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Renegade:
C# (or VB.NET) are really fast to develop in.

The way I see it, development is less and less about making great code from scratch, and more and more about assembling the best components to do that work for you as you design an application to solve a problem and make people's lives easier.

It's rare that you would need very low level languages like assembler to get a job done. Most likely you can just use an existing component that's been around and is proven. So there's no need (usually) to write all that stuff yourself.

The obvious answer then is to go for productivity and speed. .NET fits the bill there.

Also, programming languages are becoming much larger and what there is to know is growing all the time. A single developer can't keep up with everything, so going with those tools that make life easier is a more natural progression. C/C++ are more difficult. They have a place, but that space will shrink over time.

Lashiec:
There's also the WTL or Qt as well. The second one is multiplatform, OSS and widely regarded. I suppose .NET will have its space with time, but it has to compete with Java as with all those other "new" languages appearing as lately, and, of course, all the "Web 2.0" craze, which allows you to code a driver using HTML and JavaScript or something... ;D. Also, .NET will only be as good as the people developing for it, and so far I've only see VB6-like software, at least in what comes to user software. And you'll need a helluva lot of memory as well, in theory.

mwb1100:
As Mouser said, if you're programming against .NET then go with C#.  Also, if you're doing this for personal enjoyment, then I'd suggest also going the C#/.NET route.

If you're looking for something that'll provide an income, then I'd suggest learning both C++ and C#, probably with a leaning toward C++.  I think that in most markets you'd do well to be conversant in both.  If you're looking for a web-based career direction, then I might switch that to learning both C# and Java.  As languages C# and Java are quite similar, what you'd be mostly learning is the frameworks they work in.

f0dder:
If you're going to use C++, do direct Win32 API calls masochist-style, or use some crossplatform framework/toolkit. MFC is imho out of the question, you're better off with dotNET and C# - I wouldn't do C++ dotNET.

ATL/WTL, ho humm. Sorta similar to MFC but with less bloat, but it still means learning a framework/tookit and being locked to windows development.

Personally I do C++/Win32, since that's what I grew up with, and as mouser said: it's hard to break old habits. I haven't found a GUI toolkit that I really like, and dotNET/BCB/Delphi/etc. are too bloated for my liking.

cnewtonne:
Thank you all gurus. Your insightful remarks are priceless since I can never find them in books. What I read in books and on web site is all one dimensional and lacks the real-life perspective.

My interest has been to develop DK apps for commercial reasons. I also have a particular interest in developing for the Palm OS on a small scale. I wanted to learn a language were I can leverage both interests. To this purpose, C++ was the way to go. I assume learning C# to start with should help a lot learning C++ as well. At least for the DK, I can now rule out mfc and native api in favor of .net.

I will be doing some research this week on the Palm OS side at PDN. I have already installed Turbo C# and will be playing with it throughout this week.


Thank you all.

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