Sorry boys, i gave up! migrating to c#

[Kowalski]

I've done programming for desktop systems (heavily low level programming) and for microcontollers( motorola and intel) for 5 years. For last 4 years Visual C++ 6.0 was one any only developement tool i used except winasm( i am one of those mazochists coding win32 programs in assembly)
So after all the "optimization" madness i passed through, i hated the idea of interprated code, especialy basic and java languages, therefore cross-platform concept.
For the last 3-5 days i have been playing with visual studio .NET2003 and the only thing i say is WOW! i have suffered for years just to implement an avarage user interface for any simple program but with c# i can do the same in only a couple of hours withouth any pain.
Now the time has come: it is the machines job to suffer from the overload of .NET runtime, rather the work done by me in order to make an optimized UI!
But the only drawback here is, any programmer using c# is more dependent to the engineers in Microsoft more than ever befoure. Any changing in the runtime engine or class hierarchy will directly effect our coding standarts, and the bugs will directly effect our programs.
I am looking forward to see the evolution of .NET CF in the next years.

[OSUKid7]

But the only drawback here is, any programmer using c# is more dependent to the engineers in Microsoft more than ever befoure. Any changing in the runtime engine or class hierarchy will directly effect our coding standarts, and the bugs will directly effect our programs.
I am looking forward to see the evolution of .NET CF in the next years.AFAIK it's no more dependent than Java programmers are on Sun. They may change a few things, but usually they keep backwards compatability.

I know C++ and Java, and have thought many times about making the leap to try some C#. Of course my Linux guru friends tell me not, but I loved the feel of Java, and with the awesome dev interface, it doesn't look too hard to learn. Now I just need to get my act together and send in my student ID to TheSpoke.net (http://www.thespoke.net) to get VS.NET2003 for $25 I believe. Quite a deal, I just need to get it done! LOL.

[Janak Parekh]

I know C++ and Java, and have thought many times about making the leap to try some C#. Of course my Linux guru friends tell me not, but I loved the feel of Java, and with the awesome dev interface, it doesn't look too hard to learn.
I literally just started my first "real" C# project after years and years of heavy Java programming, and I can say you'll get used to it almost immediately. C# is, syntactically, extremely similar to Java (some constructs renamed) with some neat features added on top and a richer set of libraries. That said, I prefer Eclipse (especially v3, which is an amazing IDE) to VS .NET 2003, but I'll manage.

As for your Linux friends, they can always run Mono... or can continue coding in Java and can interoperate with your C# code using Web Services and the like. ;) In my case, I'm coding up my current project in C# because it's extremely Windows-specific. I'll probably continue Java development for my cross-platform problems.

Oh - and Kowalski - welcome to the world of managed code. It's really hard to go back for non-hardware applications. 8)

--janak

[humbletim]

... But the only drawback here is, any programmer using c# is more dependent to the engineers in Microsoft more than ever befoure. ... I am looking forward to see the evolution of .NET CF in the next years.

I've had to re-write and/or convert (JLCA!) lots of code to get what I needed done in .NET Compact Framework (even w/ OpenNETCF (http://www.opennetcf.org/CategoryView.aspx?category=Home)).

From missing MD5 checksums, HTTP Cookies, Zip files, and crazy HttpWebRequest bugs -- I am still a convert. ;)

I will always use PHP, Perl, and Unix Sockets, but having a few (carefully-crafted) .cs files that are shared between the desktop and device makes debugging almost insignificant (in ActiveSync terms).

Managed code is no surprise to me, but I didn't really "get" it until .NET. I previously ported Mozilla's SpiderMonkey (a C implementation of ECMAScript/JavaScript) with good success on mobile devices.

C# has enabled me to create very cool tools very quickly, and although the device-side of things needs some help, I'll be targetting Windows Mobile 2003+ using .NET CF for now.

[Kowalski]

the guys developing OpenNETCF are doing a realy amazing job. they are filling the gaps the engineers in microsoft didnt implement for some reasons.
i am pretty sure that within a year, the project will grow and be an important part for every c# programmer.

[manywhere]

As for your Linux friends, they can always run Mono... or can continue coding in Java and can interoperate with your C# code using Web Services and the like. ;)
Or DotGNU (http://www.dotgnu.org/), although they seem to want to focus more on C#.