I'm confused about programming languages
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I started out to try to learn some C+ programming just to keep the old brain going.
I found Bloodshed's Dev C++ and got a copy of C All-In-One Desk Reference For Dummies by Dan Gookin and was wading my way through.
Recently I had seen a message ( on here I believe ) that Dev C++ was not being maintained and the person recommended using another IDE Visual C# ... I believe that was it.
So I downloaded that from Microsoft and finally got around to trying it but am totally confused now.
Is C# a successor to C+ and C++ ?
It seems the structure and terminology are very different than C+.
Did I get the wrong program?
Which is a better system?
Should I get a brain-wipe and forget what little C+ I learned and start over with C+ or delete Visual C# 2008 Express Edition and get something else?
> Is there any way to edit your posts here?
No, this forum is as basic and as cruddy as it gets. Totally unfit for purpose.
> I found Bloodshed's Dev C++ and got a copy
Not the best tool. At its inception, when good Win32 IDE's were mostly expensive commercial products, Dev-C++ held an important place. That is no longer true. It only has any real value in its wxDev-C++ variant. There are better C++ development environments, including free tools from Microsoft, which includes probably the industries best source level debugger.
> C All-In-One Desk Reference For Dummies by Dan Gookin
Probably not the best book available. However C is a simple language and even the not so good books tend to be at least usable. C++ is a different matter however. I an not too sure however wether you are trying to learn C or C++. You seem to be hedging your bets by inventiong a language called "C+". I guess that was just anothr typo, but are we talking about C or C++?
> Is C# a successor to C+ and C++ ?
I imagine that you in fact wanted Visual C++. You should have found it at the same site as VC# ( http://www.microsoft.com/express/product/default.aspx ). C# is not the successor to anything, just as C++ is not the successor to C. Ther are different languages that share some heritage and similarities. However C# is a built from scratch language designed from the outset to work hand-in-glove wit the .Net framework. As ever the answer to your query is probably best answered by the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy ... I mean Wikipedia, but it is much the same thing... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_Sharp_(programming_language)
> It seems the structure and terminology are very different than C+.
If it was 'very' different it would be easy. But in fact it is just different enough to be confusing. (What is C+ BTW - that is twice you mentioned it so perhaps it was not a typo?).
> Which is a better system?
If you want to do .Net programming C# is teh path of least resistance. It is a very cleanly designed language unencumbered by the need to be compatible with C or the need to be viable as a systems level or bootstrap language. It needs an OS to run, whereas C and C++ can be used to write OS's. C# is a far 'safer' language, much harder to exploit or crash your system. If you want the most widely used, documented, and supported languages however C and C++ win. C however offers nothing that C++ does not have, so I cannot recommend C for desktop development (as opposed to embedded systems - where I still advocate C++ when resources allow).
> [...]or delete Visual C# 2008 Express Edition[..]
Don't do that. You can install VC++ Express Edition alongside VC#. Learn both. With the Express Edition tools Visual GUI design is only supported using Windows Forms, which rather forces you to use .NET. Using .NET with C++ requires language extensions called C++/CLI - which is effectively a different language, so you may as well go with the cleaner purpose designed C# approach.
Of course you don't get any visual design tools with Dev-C++ (you do with wxDev-C++), so is you were not going to do that in any case VC++ is a good ISO C++ tool as well as supporting C++/CLI. That is to say doing native Win32 GUIs in VC++ Express is no more difficult that with Dev-C++.
If you want native GUI design for free, use wxDev-C++. If you want Windows Forms/.NET use C#. If you just want to use pure C++ use VC++ Express. If you want to use legacy natice C++ code with .Net/Windows Forms, then use C++/CLI (VC++ Express).
Clear? ;)
Clifford
Me again
Is there any way to edit your posts here? I made a typo and wanted to fix it but can't see any way to edit the post.
In the last line of the post I meant to type " start over with C# ".
"Is C# a successor to C+ and C++ ?"
Not really. C# is more in the nature of a decendant of Java.
It is a higer level language than C and C++ - it "protects" you from a number of things that C and C++ ask you to do fairly routinely.
Wayne