You should be aware that Microsoft is no longer promoting C++/CLI as a
language
for .NET GUI applications, just for interfacing to native C++ code. C# is really
recommended for GUI code. You can use it for GUI code, but you may regret it.
yes, that's correct and there is a very strong reason for taking this
position. the reasons is not entirely technical. the reason got his roots in
late 90s. the java was growing and, obviously, microsoft initially tried to
do their best to make every single java developer a better life when
programming in java, under windows. but the treat of having crowds of
developers raising questions like "if my program runs the same everywhere,
why would i wanna stay in windows, that means that my skills are portable"
and this simple idea, java as a platform, write once run everywhere was
something to make microsoft do something about! so far so good. now, after
almos 13 years, we realize that sun's java campain was smoke and mirrors.
that java didn't run all that well anywhere, that it left behind a huge trace
of "so and so code" and despites everything looked so good (better c++,
implementation inheritance) in reality java suffered from the less common
denominator syndrom (of not really running well anywhere). but microsoft felt
the treat and reacted in the most normal way, i would you would you name it.
they stopped investments in java, especially after the very same anders
finished windows foundation classes, a better java, the father of .net
framework and we all know what happened. microsoft got inspired by many and
they made their own programming language, in this case, c#, architected by
the one of the most brilliant minds of the 20st centuries (anders). .NET
meant a better life for all windows programmers and give microsoft the chance
they've been looking for, to offer a new opportunity a new practical reason
that crowds of developers would rather stay and develop windows applications.
..NET was a better java! a finally, native and unrestricted JAVA, being able
to actually fulfill real life, daily, practical needs for so many, in the
industry. and that mattered! whatever java was missing, c# (and .net/cli) did
have, true support for properties, object oriented support of intermediate
assembly, true windows support, and instead of cross platform, offered cross
language interoperability. the crowds reacted and in a way, it makes perfect
sense not to certify C++ developers, since these guys know so much, that
their systems certify themselves! on the other hand, in mfc (and later on in
atl) you see a bizare mix of the most advanced C++ features (templates,
multiple inheritance) coupled, mixed together with horrible (completely
unnaceptable, type unsafe) c preprocessor macros, so horrible and
innapropiate that they make one wonder... it's legacy, it was the way to go,
a long time back, they've been accepted for aparent simplicity, when in fact,
the C++ language supposed to get true support for properties, events, etc in
order to offer true COMPONENTNESS to the masses (just like BCB dialect, and
VCL, never fully ported to C++ did once). Even today, the 0x upcoming C++
standard say NOTHING about support for properties and events (true
componentness) for the simple reason that the ANSI C++ comitee is 99%
politics and 20 years old technical agendas (spliting hairs instead of
actually doing what the crowd need). from this point of view, c# is
definitely better, vb as well was alligned, keeping some familiar feel and
touch and the impression that still feels like the old days, etc.
i am adding all these words, trying to give you the reason microsoft
recommends c# instead of C++ for most cases, especially when it comes to
inhouse programming for data entry forms, fat client applications, etc.
what will happen with C++ is another story. i sure hope that microsoft
realized that an entire segment of developers (the industry standards via mfc
crowd) maybe desearved a smother life, in terms of porting their applications
into the 21st century. on top of that, i bet that a lot of expenisve
marketing analysis show that one of the reasons unix still exists (in one
form or another) is the fact that many people can reuse their existing skills
(mostly in c and c++) over decades. then it's the issues of still running
applications writen tens of years ago, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
you recommended, possibly, a complete rewrite in C#. this sentense tells me
that you most likely deal with systems under a million lines of source code
(10k, 20k, etc)
for the rest of us, porting legacy applications of high complexity to C# is
as impossible (read funny) as deciding not to use English in business, but
esperando...
thigs just don't work that way, not in this time and space. that WHY, if you
pay attention, you will see microsoft (we do) remembering that there is an
entire market segment of legacy MFC apps (interesting VCL and BCB belong to
that segment as well, except that the C++ dialect in BCB does have full
support of properties and events and an anternative framework which still
feel fresh even after almost 13 years) - so, they remembered that crowds of
excellent developers, dealing with super complex C++ legacy code, could not
possibly migrate, not over night to .NET. some of them do, but others just
had to keep those systems running, offering whatever features their users
needed, on daily basis.
another category is commercial software applications. .NET runtime did not
always exist everywhere. sometimes, in certain commercial applications, raw
performance is essential. in other applications, security is very important.
and i am not talking about security in general, but precisely about the level
of confidence that your native, fully compiled and encrypted and compressed
code, could not be reverse engineered because the cost of this would be
higher than the cost of simply rewriting it.
i know, .NET offers a full range of obfuscators, sometimes, entire apps are
dressed into a native stub, instantiating the managed stuff in memory, it's a
looooong story. i do know about JITs, about the strategy of actually bringing
manged code at the level of "native" code, but there are places where native
code is needed, and the (so hard to get) skills of C++ programmers will
always be fully rewarded.
so, it's commercial software (in a box). then drivers. then system level
development, anti viruses, security software, even legacy enterprise
applications, then development tools, reality cannot be put in a box and go
like "hey, this is better, it's my way or the highway" - it simply doesn't
work that way.
So, David, if you pay attention, you should be aware that most recently,
Microsoft started to actually pay attention to this market segment. I
recently received my MSDN Magazine (October 2008, vol 23 no 11) containing an
invitation to best practices, october 27-30, 2008, hynes convention center,
boston, ma). Do yourself and other a favor and take a look at that flier.
It's mostly C++!!! NATIVE C++!!! Among speakers, you see his excellency herb
sutter, even the "god" of C++ bjarne stroustrup himself, embarassing everyone
about the lack of properties and events support in the new upcoming C++0x
standard (which will take another 20 years of dog fights to get to the market
No disrepect! But don't you see a pattern here? I would! And I do not
think that this is about "hey, my language is better than yours" (i am
personally fluent in about 20 programming languages, frameworks, etc) but
about the Microsoft's realization that the world we live in is getting to the
point of general acceptance at standard levels, for languages, frameworks,
one day even component models (unrelated to framework's definition) and even
kernels! so, C++ has definitely a good place and will still secure an
excellent position, for at least our life time! well, if this is the case
(just like the reality of global economy, village, you name it) it's time for
Microsoft to realize that and take the world again, by storm, and win! just
like they always did and we did, with them as well. I remember a yellow flier
I've got in late 80's from Microsoft, it said like that: do you wanna know
who is the most important person at Microsoft? Well, open it! and inside it
said simply "YOU ARE!"
So is here and now.
Let's hope for the best, I am super confident that the most brilliant minds
in the known universe will find a way and we'll get all better and better,
day by day, as developers, business men, managers, owners, consultants, in a
way, we are all a part of Microsoft and the other way around, right?
Have Fun, Follow your Joy,
Daniel
