Software Developers: C++, Java, Python, or C# for my desktop application? (VANITY)

Various ^ | 7/6/2009 | Me

[krb]

Personally I like Python with wx.Python for GUI stuff. Runs on Windows, MAC, and Linux just fine.

[Captain Beyond]

Thanks for the links they are really helpful TChris and all the useful information you provided.

I went and picked up Microsoft Visual Basic Deluxe Learning Edition Version 5.0, Microsoft® Visual C++® .NET Deluxe Learning Edition—Version 2003 (Pro Developer), and Programming Python. With what you provided and this I have a good start on programming. Once thanks for all the help.

[Captain Beyond]

Thanks for the tips AppyPappy. :) I am playing around with the VB right now it looks cool.

[cynwoody]

See if you can write your app in Ruby. It's really simple. You can write the performance-critical guts of your app in C++ and use the Foreign Function Interface (ffi) to access it without writing tedious glue code. And, if you need the Java libraries, you can seamlessly transition to JRuby and use them without having to get lost in the monumental tedium which is the Java language.

Within the Java orbit, there are also Scala, Clojure, Groovy, and Jython. Scala gives you all the power of Java with a much more powerful syntax. Clojure relaxes the typing constraints without too much sacrifice in performance. Groovy is a scripting language designed to appeal to Java programmers. Jython is a Python on top of the JVM.

[dan1123]

Just one note: GTK is primarily a C library, rather than a C++ library. I know it has C++ bindings, but it works best with C.

[OrioleFan]

After having supported Control Data operating systems for 15 years with other companies, I was hired by CDC in the early 80’s. One of their software experts came into my cube the first day with a Peripheral Processor dump and asked me to look at it. After a couple of minutes, I looked up at him and said, “This has to be off a NOS/BE operating system.” He asked ,”Why?”, and I said, “Because no NOS proggrammer would even think to do code modification on the fly, but it’s done by NOS/BE programmers all the time.”

He said, “You passed the test.” We became best friends.

[TChris]

The only Control Data hardware I ever saw was a 10MB (5 internal, 5 removable) 14” hard disk drive used with my dad’s Alpha Micro system. A few years later he bought a 20MB Winchester drive the size of a VCR. It could fit inside the bottom of the CDC cabinet. It blew my mind.

[OrioleFan]

Control Data Corporation Magnetic Peripherals division used to make removable hard disks (844’s) and 885’s for all the mainframe vendors. Magnetic Peripherals became Imprimis and was sold to Seagate.

You’ve see a Control Data mainframe I bet. They had one in the Nokitome Plaza in Die Hard 1, and I think (someone will correct me on this) they had one in Jurassic Park.

I worked on the OS for the 6000 series (Scope 3.3-3.4 and NOS/BE), 170 series (NOS/BE and NOS), the 7600 (Scope 2), 800 series (NOS and NOS/VE), 900 series (NOS/VE) and some of the really fast (for their time) specialized parallel processor systems CDC made (AFP, CyberPlus, and micro AFP). Never got to work on the ETA (liquid nitrogen or air cooled), but I saw one once. My languages were Compass (CP and PP), MICA, Fortran (Run and FTN), COBOL, and C. I also knew ALGOL and IBM assembly language from college. No Pascal...

[OrioleFan]

Correction on the 900 series - that was IRIX (UNIX). The 900s were Silicon Graphics workstations with CDC skins on them.