C# striking a chord with programmers

CNET News.com | May 3, 2002, 3:35 PM PT | Wylie Wong

[Bush2000]

Microsoft's new C# programming language is gaining in popularity, with usage nearly doubling in the last six months, a new study shows. C# is Microsoft's new Java-like language and a crucial piece in the software company's .Net Web services strategy, in which software is made available over the Net to be accessed by multiple devices, such as PCs, cell phones and handhelds.

Twelve percent of all North American software developers have begun using C#, up from 7 percent six months ago, according to a new survey by market research firm Evans Data. The firm also predicts that the number of programmers using C# will double to 24 percent in the next year.

The majority of developers using C# are only dabbling with the new language, however. Most current C# programmers are using the new language for less than 20 percent of their development work, choosing other languages for the brunt of their work, the survey of about 800 developers showed.

C# is not displacing any languages, because most C# users are trying out the technology instead of committing to it wholeheartedly, an Evans Data representative said.

Evans reports that C# is popular among users of Microsoft's Visual Basic programming language and among those developers using Extensible Markup Language (XML). The C# language is less popular with Java developers, Evans reports.

Microsoft is using C# in its battle for software developers. The company's .Net Web services plan is up against rival technologies sold by Sun Microsystems, inventor of the Java language, and other Java backers, such as Oracle, IBM and BEA Systems

[Free the USA]

Check the Bump List folders for articles related to and descriptions of the above topic(s) or for other topics of interest.

[Fractal Trader]

The majority of developers using C# are only dabbling with the new language, however...

C# is not displacing any languages, because most C# users are trying out the technology instead of committing to it wholeheartedly, an Evans Data representative said.

So let's see.... nobody has decided to replace Java with C#. Sounds like a total victory for Microsoft.

</sarcasm

[CTB999]

C# is identical to the new version of Visual Basic. MS added a bunch of very cool features to VB that is backward compatable with VB 6.0 and almost identical to C#

VB.NET == C#

C# = VB.NET

The choice between using VB and C# is more a matter of taste than a serious technology choice. The manuals for each language are almost identical and they give you the VB and C# syntax for every class libarary method. The reason C# will destroy Java is that C# can be compiled down to binary, Java is terrible for writing User Interface programs, Java is slow and usually runs on a buggy Virtual machine, and Java is not portable, while with C# the issue is who cares about portability.

C++ is still not totally obsolete and will remain a core langage for doing high performance graphics until MS gives me a replacement for COleControl in C#

I am working on a project in C# to view DNA Sequences and I hope to have it available on the net in a couple of weeks. I took a look at Human Chromosome 5 in my viewer this week and I am trying to make a generic DNA viewer for examining Sequences and performing Protein, cross linking, Coiling, and search operations. There is an entire new field of Bio-Informatics that is going to change the future even more than the invention of the Semiconductor chip changed the present. I hope to have something to show by next week. The real trick in computer programming is Installation, because any idiot can write good software with the tools available these days.

It is not an established fact that any new C# code is going to be running on my customers computers.

Software is easy, installation is hard.

[rdb3]

I've begun using C#. Since I'm familiar with, but no expert on Java, it's intuitive to learn.

Not bad, so far.

[ThinkLikeWaterAndReeds]

Here again, Bill has taken someone's clunky old application and improved it. Like Ben Franklin who admittedly never invented anything but instead improved on existing products, Bill continues in the same manner. Of course he will probably be dragged into court when Java begins to be threatened and another ruling will be made against him for being the most prolific innovater in a century (the court ruling however will cite coersion, extortion, fraud, and a number of other items that are always fired at the guy at the top). Hey Bill, go boy!
It appears that if the previous court rulings were really serious, Bill would be suffering. Instead I submit that it was a slap on his wrist so the government could position themselves as having done something for the whiners who were complacent about their products that Bill improved upon and wanted a court ruling as opposed to getting off their complacent a$$es and improving their own products.

[DrDavid]

The reason C# will destroy Java is that C# can be compiled down to binary, Java is terrible for writing User Interface programs, Java is slow and usually runs on a buggy Virtual machine, and Java is not portable, while with C# the issue is who cares about portability.

If you are writing Java on Windows, then it isn't portable, but every other version of Java I've used runs anywhere. There are complilers available that take Java source code and generate machine code, which isn't portable. C# normally generates CLI not machine code which runs on the .NET runtime engine (which isn't portable yet) and is very similar to the Java virtual engine.

If you want to write in C# you can, but please be accurate about what C# and Java are.

I'm afraid Java and C# will die from the same cause, bloat. The core languages while being small is lost to the very large number of library functions you have to learn to take advantage of the language.

[Still Thinking]

According to a developer buddy of mine, C# is essentially "C++ for Dummies".

[Bush2000]

According to a developer buddy of mine, C# is essentially "C++ for Dummies".

WTF do you think Java is ...

[Bush2000]

So let's see.... nobody has decided to replace Java with C#. Sounds like a total victory for Microsoft

Give it time. It will double or triple its market share every year. You can extrapolate where that places it in 5 years...

[Harrison Bergeron]

"20% of 12% = 2.4% of 800 respondents use C#"

Heh heh...

Like my bubbi used to say... "You never hear a fish monger yelling 'Rotten fish for sale!'"

[ikka]

Crappy runtime + incompatibility with most Unixes + poor scalability + paid astroturf advertorials like this + 90% current MS market share in OSes = ?

[Dominic Harr]

C# is not displacing any languages, because most C# users are trying out the technology instead of committing to it wholeheartedly, an Evans Data representative said.

I'm surprised only 14% have tried it. Most everyone I know has tried C#. Most Java developers checked it out, looking to see if we could do anything better. I built a few small reporting components, and a Jeapordy game.

Many problems, but some promise. Most of the problems are architectural, and can be worked out over the next few years.

So far, C# is a nice first implementation with a lot of problems. If it survies 3 years, and fixes a bunch of the problems, it *should* start being used on some production systems.

But as of now, .NET is Java with the scalability, reliability and cross platform taken out.

You notice this was posted by the unethical MS salesman. I'm certain that the 20% of programming shops out there that are MS-only will migrate to this -- eventually.

The other 80% likely won't.

Oh, and if anyone is suggesting .NET is ready for production systems now . . . well, only salesmen and college students use a 1.0 version of *anything* for mission critical work. And they're *always* sorry. Especially with MS offerings.

MS has is famous for their history of selling buggy tech which the salesmen promise is ready, a history of not making even usable tools for the first 4 or 5 releases that the salesmen tell you is the world's best. So like with all MS technology, use this at your own risk. There are certainly built-in problems that MS either doesn't yet know about or isn't telling anyone about. Just like all their other stuff. There are already serious unpatched security issues with .NET web services (no surprise there).

But do use .NET. Play with it, learn it. Learn *all* new tchnologies, if you have the time. I am pro-C#.

As I've been told by the salesman who posted this, I'm not pro-C# enough, since I see both pro's and con's of C# (in the MS sales world, all criticism of MS is not to be tolerated, MS and their offerings are only good, never bad).

But I like the direction MS is heading with .NET.

[duckman]

Don't waste your time with C#, EZTRIEVE is the language of the future.

[Vince Ferrer]

Twelve percent of all North American software developers have begun using C#

Seems high to me, I don't know anyone who has tried it, or who plans to.

[eraser X]

Here's a discussion about the VB.Net versus C# debate that might interest you and others reading.

[wdkeller]

Judging by offerings from MS Press, MS is pushing VB.Net and treating C# like BR stepchild. However, VB programmers say VB.Net has so little resemblance to VB they call it Visual Fred. But Bill hath said, "thou shalt adopt .Net". Hope he gets his clock cleaned in court.