Replies

C, C++, C#, Java, Pascal, Object Pascal are all Algol-60 based languages, so there isn't much to knowing one if you know another. C# looks like Delphi because C# looks like C++ and Object Pascal is essentially stolen from C++; even most of the keywords and syntax were lifted. The few parts of C# that look explicitly like Delphi and not C++ are things that for the life of me I cannot understand why they were not in C++ to begin with (like closures.) They actually were in C++Builder, which was a great product. But those few got to C++Builder from Delphi, not the other way around, as most of the rest did.

The few improvements that make C# a better C++ are not many, but they definitely do exist and have Hejlsberg's signature.

The one place where NO language has come anywhere close to C++ even now is in template metaprogramming and Generics. The Generics in Java are just OK, they are OK in Delphi, better in C#, but nobody has yet gotten a generic programming model as good as C++. And given design limitations of the CLR, C# is not likely to get there, stubborness on the part of the Java committee Java is never going to get thre, and the fact that Delphi is running out of steam (and $) I don't see it getting there either. Pity, really, because generic programming is a huge idea; and it's been like, "well, the C++ people expect generics so we'll do some half-assed implementation to make them happy."

Metaprogramming in .Net has gone in a completely different direction.