C# In-Depth

Bergkamp10 from ComputerWorld writes "Microsoft's leader of C# development, writer of the Turbo Pascal system, and lead architect on the Delphi language, Anders Hejlsberg, reveals all there is to know on the history, inspiration, uses and future direction of one of computer programming's most widely used languages — C#. Hejlsberg also offers some insight into the upcoming version of C# (C#4) and the new language F#, as well as what lies ahead in the world of functional programming."

Foctothorpe FTW

[netpixie]

I am a sad case and find much amusement in the fact that the "correct" name for the # symbol is octothorpe, which means "C#" should not be pronounced "C-sharp" but Coctothorpe.

Imagine my joy on discovering that they've scoured the alphabet and have managed to find a new initial letter that makes an even funnier name.

Ladies and gentlemen, let us welcome the new language, F# or Foctothorpe.

C# is a good language

[s6135]

I think C# is one of the better languages I have used. I think M$ has done a good job (as they usually do) of stealing the concept and making it easier for the user (in this case, developer). I do understand that as far as M$ is concerned, it is only meant for Windows. However, that does not diminish the fact that it is a good language. I have friend who work solely on Java. Their target deployment servers are linux. But they do all their development on Windows.

Re:One of the most widely used languages?

[Dystopian Rebel]

Yes, it must be one of the most widely used, because it seems that every day I hear of .NET failing to scale somewhere.

You're missing the most radical language of all

[BadAnalogyGuy]

The Roctothorpe!

*insert headbanging graphic here*

Re:Why F#?

[xouumalperxe]

Well, F# is a perfect fourth up from C#, which offers better resolution than moving to E#, a major third up. At least they didn't go for G, at which point they'd have you begging for G#.

Re:Foctothorpe FTW

[Anonymous Coward]

I prefer C-tic-tac-toe, but that's just me.

Re:Foctothorpe FTW

[kosh]

octothorpe!?!?

Damn!! and I always thought C# was the "hundred pound" programming language. Doh!

>.

Re:Foctothorpe FTW

[binarylarry]

I can't wait until the Mono project completes their clone.

And I can use GNU/Cocotothorpe.

Meh. It's alright. Not great yet.

[Seakip18]

I'm a little surprised at the ease to attack C# but not much. It actually does a few of the things that C++ folk would like over Java, but I can understand the comparisons with Java.

Anyways, I've been fooling around with it for a while via an O'Reilly book and so far it's not too bad. That said, I don't see it much use beyond the Windows .Net Framework. Then again, that's all employers seem to want to see on the resume nowadays when it comes to development. And who can blame them?

I do have a cause for concern though....

Now, you can argue that we're not obviously open source or anything, but the language is standardized, and the entire specification is available for anyone to go replicate. Mono has done so, and I think Mono is a fantastic thing. I don't know [if] you're familiar with Mono, but it's an implementation of the C# standard and the CLI standard (which is effectively the .NET standard) on Linux, built as an open source project. And they're doing great work and we talk to them a lot and I think it's a super thing.

The fact it feels like he's faking the enthusiasm, as he did for most of this dumb interview, is slightly scary. The followup question confirms that

And I guess they couldn't have done that had you not put the specifications out there?

Well, they could have but it would have been a heck of a lot harder and it would probably not be as good a product. You can go reverse engineer it... they have reverse engineered a lot of the .NET platform... but all of the core semantics of the language, they were part of the standardization process.

You know most recently we've created Silverlight, which is our browser hosted .NET runtime environment, and the Mono guys have built a project called Moonlight which is an implementation of Silverlight that is officially sanctioned by Microsoft that runs on Linux and other browsers. It's a good thing.

Lastly...

It is possible to build alternate implementations. We are not building .NET for Linux, because the value proposition that we can deliver to our customers is a complete unified and thoroughly tested package, from the OS framework to databases to Web servers etc.

Ummm....just because it's possible to build an alternate implementation doesn't mean it will work the same way. It would absolutely kill me to use a language that implements two things differently because MS wants to hold back special class $VERY_IMPORTANT_FUNCTION that is the paramount to the language, such as database or socket connectivity.

I seriously hope that Java being opened helps chop block this. With open code, my hope is more places will buy into the language, showing MS that a "industrial-strength" language can be free.

Re:Oh, well, that explains everything...

[morgan_greywolf]

It seemed like 90% of the time when I came across a badly behaved application that ignored command line redirects because it went straight to the BIOS just to write its copyright banner, and wouldn't run on anything but a perfect clone, or wouldn't run under DoubleDOS, or (later) required the most stringent DOS emulation under Windows, it was in Turbo Pascal.

Hey! I wrote some of those applications, you insensitive clod!

(Whaddya want? I was a 15-year old kid with a copy of Turbo Pascal. A very dangerous thing back then. ;)

Re:Foctothorpe FTW

[danwesnor]

It never ceases to amazes me what Slashdotters will argue about. Somebody makes a reasonably funny smart-ass remark and the next 5,000 posts are dedicated to arguing about whether his premise is correct.

Re:Meh. It's alright. Not great yet.

[ozphx]

So if something is useful, but has a performance hit when used, it should be left out?

Dang. There goes my bright idea about "methods" with all their wasteful pushing and popping before jmps...

Re:Foctothorpe FTW

[risk one]

Somebody should trademark C octothorpe, and sue Microsoft for every place they've used the wrong character.

Re:oh goody.

[haystor]

If your goal is ugly code, then Java is the clear winner.

I should really use monstrously long words and about 38 more lines to explain this, but Java is not my preferred writing style.