Rob Hudson wrote: >Anyone know much about C-pound? ;) > >I know it's a Microsoft thing, but what is their agenda? I haven't seen >any C# code so don't know too much about why it exists, etc. > >My reason for asking is that Ximian is working on a C# language binding >to GTK called GTK#, as seen in this announcement: >http://lists.ximian.com/archives/public/gtk-sharp-list/2002-April/000048.html > >Thanks, >Rob > > C# is part of the .NET behemoth, Microsoft's latest and greatest plot to take over the world (say that in a Brain voice) with software as a service. Ask twelve people what "software as a service" means and you'll get at least a dozen different answers. It's tied in with Passport and all those other Microsoft things we loathe. It's quite similar to Java, with enough Microsoftish incomp^H^H^H^H^H^Hfeatures to cause a learning curve for the Java adept. So, like Java, its a garbage collected, object oriented language with a C like (Algol-66 like?) syntax. It compiles to an intermediate byte-code like form called CLR (Common Runtime Language). A virtual machine then interprets or compiles it real time into machine instructions. So, the idea is that you get the platform independence of Java...without the platform independence :) (Ximian's Mono project notwithstanding). Apparently, the plan is to allow many languages to compile into CLR so you could have language independence as well as platform independence. Whether this will take off and allow any languages aside from VB and C# remains to be seen.
Some people are taking this very seriously, others not so and I'd put myself into the latter camp. Personally, I like Java's platform for web services and such, seeing as it's existed (in a non-vaporware state) for a lot longer and there are more real life examples of it being used. Some of the landmines have already been plotted out for the rest of us to avoid. So anyway, Bill Gates thinks that web services will revolutionize the way computing is done and that .NET will emerge as the clear winner in that space. Personally, I see a lot more going on with Java/J2EE/JSP, at least in the circles I'm a part of. Or, am I just making this up? I haven't paid really close attention over the past few months, so that's my only somewhat educated (and more than somewhat irreverent) take on things. Kahli
