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

I used to teach a Win16, then Win32 API programming course. I also taught an MFC course.
In the Win16/Win32 courses, we could get the students to create an app that vaguely
resembled a proper Windows application by late Wednesday afternoon. No menu prompts, no
toolbars, no status bar, but hey, it almost worked right.

In the MFC course, the first lab is "build an MFC application". It takes 5 minutes to get
to where we were after three days, and our first app is built before the morning break.
ANd it has toolbar, status bar, menu prompts, etc.

The cost for the low-end version of VS should justify going for the real thing. I was
buying the Microsoft C/C++/MFC system from my personal funds back when it was a great deal
more expensive than it is today (allowing for inflation). Free software is often worth
exactly what you pay for it.
joe
On Sun, 11 Feb 2007 15:36:45 GMT, MrAsm <mrasm@xxxxxxx> wrote:

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
Joseph M. Newcomer [MVP]
email: newcomer@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Web: http://www.flounder.com
MVP Tips: http://www.flounder.com/mvp_tips.htm
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Semi-newbie question on Visual C++ vs. Visual C#
    ... I took a bunch of programming classes some years ... Using MFC, I do this as an exercise in one of my courses. ... So I'm not sure why you said it was hard, unless you were trying to create a raw Win32 GUI ... Saving data structures and retrieving them is quite independent of the language. ...
    (microsoft.public.vc.mfc)
  • Re: Just Learned ANSI C, what I should learn next? Options
    ... have been good at programming with the mainstructure method. ... What I did at this point was attack C++ in a console application environment before moving on to GUI work with MFC, but that was about 10 years ago. ... One great thing about C++ is that it is portable to other platforms (though MFC is a Windows-only GUI platform). ...
    (microsoft.public.vc.mfc)
  • What are the transition paths away from MFC in native C++ ?
    ... I'm in a world of performance oriented windows-only C++ programming ... (image processing, motion control, custom device interfacing...). ... Yet on a regular basis I need a GUI for my applications, ... GUIs with MFC. ...
    (microsoft.public.win32.programmer.ui)
  • Re: Semi-newbie question on Visual C++ vs. Visual C#
    ... want to waste time learning GUI programming again. ... I want to be able to slap together a basic GUI using drag-and-drop ... Do you have access to anybody who is familiar with MFC? ...
    (microsoft.public.vc.mfc)
  • Re: mfc pitfalls
    ... I see no callbacks in MFC. ... but I see no callbacks. ... premises of one of them as a basis of design or implementation in one of the others. ... programming in OO environment requires new ...
    (microsoft.public.vc.mfc)