[Colonol Dekker]

On that note.




*breaks out charcoal briquettes*

[karajorma]

I would expect the main criticism of the idea to be down to using C#, to be honest.  AFAIK it's scarcely any better than Java for this type of programming (and less portable too, AFAIK, due to being proprietary).

Given that portability is the main attraction of Java I've never seen the point of C# in the first place.

[aldo_14]

I would expect the main criticism of the idea to be down to using C#, to be honest.  AFAIK it's scarcely any better than Java for this type of programming (and less portable too, AFAIK, due to being proprietary).

Given that portability is the main attraction of Java I've never seen the point of C# in the first place.

Presumably it's solely because Ms got succesfully sued for billions by Sun (I briefly met the guy who negotiated the settlement with Bill Gates; nice guy, seemed to really dislike Carly Fiorina) for implementing a non-portable JVM/compiler.  Probably also trying to create a commercial (app development) successor to C++ that can be tightly tied to Windows (etc).  Certainly I'm not sure what the advantage of this is over, say, learning C++ or Java (etc; i.e. any language suitable for what you want to do) and just working from the ground up (or even Blitz Basic, which a lot of programmers seem to get snobbish about because it's 'Basic', but i've heard it's very good for prototyping and simple beginner games)

So, no good reason.

Incidentally, seems that the Wii will be offering something similar through the 'virtual console'.  Which makes it quite interesting, having 2 main consoles (and I have a feeling the PS3 might support Linux + development to some degree) supporting some degree of homebrew.  Albeit it's not clear how the games would be distributed in either case, as the usage of an Ms/Nintendo proprietary service would presumably incur a charge.

[karajorma]

Oh I know why MS think that C# has a point. What I can't see is why anyone else would be stupid enough to buy into it.

[Kazan]

exactly.. and yet there are a growing number of programmers writing C-pounded.  Sorry i don't need a bondage-and-discipline language and neither does anyone else

as for why programmers get snippy, rightfully, about any usage of a BASIC language - it's because it teaches EXTREMELY EXTREMELY EXTREMELY bad programming practices

[IPAndrews]

Yes I'm being forced to teach C# by my uni. I guess it's not actually bad as a teaching language. Certainly less hassle than Java. Though Kazan's point that good programmers don't need strict languages is a fair one.

[Colonol Dekker]

If only FS was written in old dos basic...................



*raises point defence shields*

[Deepblue]

Yeah, this is for PC and 360. You can develop for free on the PC. To develop on the 360 you need to pay $99 a year.

[Mefustae]

To develop on the 360 you need to pay $99 a year.

Woah, that's a great way to encourage consumers.

"Not only can you make your own damn games on our system, but you get the privilege of paying us for the opportunity! You can thank us later, preferably with a cheque in the mail."

[Descenterace]

Can someone please explain why C# is a worse language than Java? Note 'language', not 'platform'; .NET is the platform and C# is only the language.

In many ways I'd describe C# as the superior language. Java is more of a B&D language. C# v2.0 has enough little extra features added to it to move it out of that realm.

.NET, on the other hand, is pretty awful. I'm waiting for someone to write a C#->Java Bytecode/x86 Native compiler. Once that happens, it'll probably replace Java as my tool of choice for homebrew projects.

[aldo_14]

I've heard nary a peep about using C# (rather than the mixture of C / C++ & Java that dominates) at work, and I'd wager it's largely because of portability issues.  I'm not sure, exactly,

Have to say I'm not sure how Java is B&D; I've not seen anything in the language design that makes it inadequate for the (fairly heavy duty) applications we build with it.  Ultimately it's horses for courses, mind you.  I'm sure, say, C# has it's uses instead of Java (or, say, C++ etc), I just can't see them in terms of any context I've worked in.

[Kazan]

Can someone please explain why C# is a worse language than Java? Note 'language', not 'platform'; .NET is the platform and C# is only the language.

other than them both being B&D languages*? C# is microsoft dependant



* hard to get worse than being a B&D language