Newbie needs your opinion:

[Simple Man]

Hi all,

I'm taking on the task of learning yet another programming language to
improve my resume. I'm pretty well versed in asp, vb6, javascript and html.
I want to learn C, I have a book from Wrox "Beginning C++" which has been
sitting in my library for nearly 3 years untouched. I see that there are a
many employers looking for people with C# skills. My question is, should I
skip C++ and go right to C#? I understand that there were significant
changes between the too and I don't want to start programming habits with
C++ that may now be obsolete.

Your thoughts?

Bill

 

[Jerry Coffin]

Hi all,

I'm taking on the task of learning yet another programming language
to improve my resume. I'm pretty well versed in asp, vb6, javascript
and html. I want to learn C, I have a book from Wrox "Beginning C++"
which has been sitting in my library for nearly 3 years untouched. I
see that there are a many employers looking for people with C#
skills. My question is, should I skip C++ and go right to C#? I
understand that there were significant changes between the too and I
don't want to start programming habits with C++ that may now be
obsolete.

C# is _not_ a newer version of C++ or anything like it. C# is a
completely different language with a fundamentally different intent and
applicability from C++.

What I'd advise is deciding what kinds of things you want to do, and
then choosing what to learn based on that. The basic intent of C# is
for writing applications. In theory it's not restricted to Windows, but
in fact right now it's not really much good outside the Windows world.

The basic intent of C++ is for writing systems (e.g. the OS on which
the applications run or the virtual machine inside of which C# runs).
It's also used to write applications that have little or no system
orientation, but that's not really its strength. It's also allows you
to choose between portability and direct access to the hardware.

The question then, is mostly what sorts of things you want to do -- so
far it looks like your focus has been more or less toward web-based
work, and things on that order. If you want to continue along that
line, C# is probably a better choice. If you want to get away from that
and more toward what some would think of as more hard-core development,
then C++ might be a better choice.

My final bit of advice would be to avoid being guided too much by what
shows up in the want ads today. The language of the month club has
regular meetings, but people who solve problems well are too busy to
attend...

 

[Ioannis Vranos]

Hi all,

I'm taking on the task of learning yet another programming language to
improve my resume. I'm pretty well versed in asp, vb6, javascript and html.
I want to learn C, I have a book from Wrox "Beginning C++" which has been
sitting in my library for nearly 3 years untouched. I see that there are a
many employers looking for people with C# skills. My question is, should I
skip C++ and go right to C#? I understand that there were significant
changes between the too and I don't want to start programming habits with
C++ that may now be obsolete.

With the advent of VC++ 2005 and C++/CLI standard, C++ becomes the
systems programming language of .NET.



Take a look at these:


http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/05/01/COptimizations/default.aspx

http://pluralsight.com/blogs/hsutter/archive/2004/10/05/2672.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/branbray/archive/2003/11/07/51007.aspx

http://www.accu.org/conference/pres...Relevant_on_Modern_Environments_(keynote).pdf


And a page of mine:

http://www23.brinkster.com/noicys/cppcli.htm

 

[Thomas Matthews]

Hi all,

I'm taking on the task of learning yet another programming language to
improve my resume. I'm pretty well versed in asp, vb6, javascript and html.
I want to learn C, I have a book from Wrox "Beginning C++" which has been
sitting in my library for nearly 3 years untouched. I see that there are a
many employers looking for people with C# skills. My question is, should I
skip C++ and go right to C#? I understand that there were significant
changes between the too and I don't want to start programming habits with
C++ that may now be obsolete.

Your thoughts?

Bill

Many employers are not looking for just C#, C++ or C
language experience. This is just the root of the
requirements. Generally they have a specific application
of those languages, such as aerospace, image processing,
digital signal processing, etc. If you don't have those
areas of expertise, you will be passed over regardless
of how many languages you know or how skillful you are
with those languages.

Sad but true, most employers now want all of their
requirements fullfilled and are not willing to spend
money training people.

BTW, only a few languages are "obsolete". Old languages like
Fortran, LISP and Cobol are still going strong. The C++ language
is not due to become obsolete for a couple of decades. Don't
worry.


--
Thomas Matthews

C++ newsgroup welcome message:
http://www.slack.net/~shiva/welcome.txt
C++ Faq: http://www.parashift.com/c++-faq-lite
C Faq: http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/c-faq/top.html
alt.comp.lang.learn.c-c++ faq:
http://www.comeaucomputing.com/learn/faq/
Other sites:
http://www.josuttis.com -- C++ STL Library book
http://www.sgi.com/tech/stl -- Standard Template Library

 

[Noah Roberts]

Hi all,

I'm taking on the task of learning yet another programming language to
improve my resume. I'm pretty well versed in asp, vb6, javascript and

html.

I might suggest C# because of your area of apparent interest. C# can
be used in ASP, I just had an interview were that is what I would be
doing. You can't do embedded scripting with C++ afaik, nor would you
really want to.

I don't think C# is any better, and in fact it seems to just be another
java, but if this is what you want to do (web stuff) C# would be the
more useful to you.

 

[Simple Man]

Thanks for the input, seems I might want to learn them both side by side as
long as I already own Visual Studio 6 and VS .Net.

You're correct that my main focus has been web based apps and will likely
continue, but I've also written a number of data driven Win32 apps in VB
(which anyone can do in my opinion). What I'd really like to know is how
hard core apps are written like PhotoShop, Netscape, Flash etc. Or at least
have a basic understanding of principals if I never code anything that
intense.

Thanks again!

Bill

 

[John Carson]

Thanks for the input, seems I might want to learn them both side by
side as long as I already own Visual Studio 6 and VS .Net.

You're correct that my main focus has been web based apps and will
likely continue, but I've also written a number of data driven Win32
apps in VB (which anyone can do in my opinion). What I'd really like
to know is how hard core apps are written like PhotoShop, Netscape,
Flash etc. Or at least have a basic understanding of principals if I
never code anything that intense.

Thanks again!

Bill

"Hard core apps" are generally written in C++ or C. Microsoft has recently
started writing some parts of its applications using C#, but they are still
very largely C++.

http://www.research.att.com/~bs/applications.html