Re: Semi-newbie question on Visual C++ vs. Visual C#

On Sun, 11 Feb 2007 02:18:35 GMT, Steven O. <null@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

I now plan to develop some simple scientific and mathematical
applications, mostly for self-study purposes, but some of them may
turn commercial at some point. The guts of the programs will be the
mathematical logic and processing, but I do need a GUI front-end for
data input, setting parameters, results display, etc. I've downloaded
both Visual C++ Express and Visual C# Express, but haven't explored
them yet, and I'm trying to decide which one to pursue.

I believe that with Visual C++ Express you *can't* use MFC. You may
download the Platform SDK (separate download) and develop your GUI
code using that SDK (not MFC).

But if you find it hard to develop GUIs using VC6 and MFC (with all
the wizards and IDE support), I think you will have hard-time to
develop using "pure" Win32 Platform SDK...


In terms of underlying code for program logic, I'd prefer to work in
C++, both because I know it already, and because it is more universal
than C#. (So, for example, it would be easier to port the code to
some other environment down the road.)

There are C# projects in development under GNU/Linux (like Mono and
DotGNU). But I don't know their level of compatibility with
Microsoft's C# and IDE...


On the other hand, I don't
want to waste time learning GUI programming again.

If you don't want to learn GUI programming, then choosing Visual C#
2005 Express would be a better option.
It's just drag-and-drop and add event handlers... :) Very RAD.


I want to be able to slap together a basic GUI using drag-and-drop
style development for GUI components. A very quick peek at Visual C++
Express does not immediately reveal a drag-and-drop development tool,
but I may have missed something. (Have not even installed Visual C#
Express yet.) So, in the end, I'll go with whichever language makes
its easier to put the GUI together, and if that means learning C#,
I'll do that.

So you should learn C#.

And consider also that C# is basically C++ without pointers and with
some interesting features (like garbage collector, built-in
reflection, a huge library - the .NET framework, etc.)

However, if you want to implement very complex data structures, you
may also consider support of libraries like STL or Boost. In this
case, for what I know, you have to use C++ (maybe there's a STL.NET,
but I think it is under development...).

I think that building the core of your app in C++ and building the GUI
using C# RAD-system, and call C++ code from C# (using C-interface DLL
or COM) would be the best choice for you.

MrAsm
.

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