MS Visual Studio .NET

by **Digby** » Feb 7, 2002 @ 7:06am

There aren't any currently. It's pretty trivial to get the IDE to call your compiler and linker. A bit more difficult to use the integrated debugger. It might be possible through the new Visual Studio .Net SDK though.

by **RwGast** » Feb 7, 2002 @ 7:21am

by **randall** » Feb 7, 2002 @ 7:42am

by **RwGast** » Feb 7, 2002 @ 10:29am

by **James S** » Feb 7, 2002 @ 9:42pm

by **spray** » Feb 12, 2002 @ 2:16pm

I saw this post and had to respond. Since I too happen to have a Universal Subscription. I currently have VS .Net installed and am working with C#.

There is a separate plugin called "Smart Device Extensions for VS .Net" or something like that. Anyway you can build .Net apps for PocketPC 2002. Supposedly you can also build apps for previous CE versions, but I haven't seen much evidence of this.(and since my Ipaq runs PPC2002...)

The Smart Device support is only a beta at this point. It contains a scaled down version of MS' runtime for .Net. My biggest gripe with it is that when you go to create an app for the PPC there's no forms designer (like in desktop .Net apps). At least I can't figure out how to get it to enable. (Just a note the forms designer in the VS .Net is an awful lot like Delphi's or any of the Borland dev tools... Microsoft hired the former Chief Architect of Delphi... go figure :wink:

)

Anyways, to answer the other questions about C# and your current code), C# is different than C++. Some of your generic routines will work fine. There is a version of VC++, but I wouldn't want to make any guarantees about that one either. .Net utilizes a runtime (read Virtual Machine like Java does). There are 2 modes of operation for code managed and unmanaged. Managed code runs within the runtime and has all the features and libraries that .Net offers (which is extensive), and unmanaged code is like what you're used to working with now.

What I like about C# is that it is a simpler version of C++. It loses some of C/C++'s more advanced features. You don't have pointers in managed code, and you don't have to destroy objects when things go out of scope and are no longer used the garbage collector recycles the memory. You also don't have multiple inheritance (you do have interfaces so you can implement multiple classes, just not inherit the code). Obviously I like C#... It will be different for us in the future as far as building apps for PPC, but it looks like they have found a way that we truly can build our desktop code then recompile (or redeploy) right on the PPC (did I mention that things are JIT compiled... The good news about this point is that it's not slow...)

by **RwGast** » Feb 12, 2002 @ 4:31pm

by **Dan East** » Feb 12, 2002 @ 4:50pm

Yes, it is basically java with a few extra twists. Next I hear Microsoft will be inventing a thing called an "automobile". Apparantly you get into this machine, which is powered by a thing called an "internal combustion engine". It will then transport you at high speeds from one place to another on another Microsoft invention, the "road". Pretty revolutionary stuff. Microsoft is really cutting edge. They definitely deserve their billions. Especially Bill Gates.

Dan East

by **andys** » Feb 12, 2002 @ 6:34pm

by **RwGast** » Feb 12, 2002 @ 8:07pm

Man seriously it looks like ms thought that vb was to messy and java was pretty cleans so they just replaced there 'esasy to use' #1 favorrite app builder vb with c#. I really doubt anyone is going to make worthwhile game in c#. Cant we all stop kissing ms ass and admit virtual machines suck.

by **andys** » Feb 12, 2002 @ 10:38pm

by **Hosed** » Feb 13, 2002 @ 10:57pm

Actually anyone who really knows what they're doing can program real-time systems just as well in a managed environment, IE Java, VB, C#. You just gotta know when, why, and how the garbage collector is running, have s solid understanding of OOP, language features, and the compiler. Then again a software engineer should know these things for any language and platform he's working on.

As for C# being Java. Go actually read about it. And stop saying "MS invented it". If you want to know who invented C# it was that very same afforementioned chief architect from Delphi who invented it. Speaking of which, there's a whole slew of game developers developing for Delphi.

by **andys** » Feb 13, 2002 @ 11:25pm

Is there a way of supressing or controlling the Garbage collector for .NET? AFAIK there isn't for Java, unless you're using a real-time Java (where you get control over these things)

The performance of .NET won't be awful - Java can be plenty fast enough - but managed runtimes aren't free, and there is a tendancy to over-engineer things.

I might be pleasantly suprised by .NET. They've got quite a few things right that Java has gotten wrong - so it'll be interesting to see where they go from here.

by **Dan East** » Feb 13, 2002 @ 11:38pm

I would never say Microsoft invented anything - that is something they like to constantly imply. They never have been, and never will be innovators. The only reason they have been successful is because 1) Bill Gates was in the right place, at the right time, and resold a version of DOS someone else wrote. And 2) since that time of early MS dominance (thank you so much for making that infamous decision, IBM ~) they have used sometimes legal, and often illegal maneuvers to either integrate and profit off of, or otherwise stifle, any innovation related to their field. No matter how good it would be for the consumer or technology in general, if it means money flowing into another company that is not allied, then Microsoft will use all means to destroy it.

Dan East