[Gllug] OT(ish): Advice

[Matthew Thompson]

On Tuesday, December 10, 2002, at 12:05  am, Richard Hillesley wrote

>> Much though you and others may find this dis-tasteful I am going to
>> suggest Microsoft's .NET languages. Mostly VB.net and C#.net
>>
>
> Not only do I find this distasteful, I think it is also bad advice.

Just as I predicted.

> I could think of any number of reasons for justifying the counter 
> argument,
> but the best is that you are better looking for cross platform skills, 
> and if
> you want an interesting life as a developer the one thing you should 
> know, is
> that it ain't going to be interesting to be tied into the world of 
> WIndows

I'm actually quite pleased to be able to say that the .NET languages 
are unlikely to be tied just to Windows.

What has impressed me the most is how far the mono [ 
http://www.go-mono.com ] project has come. It's got a self compiling 
compiler now and they are also having quite a bit of success with 
VB.net and ASP.net - even going as far as using the GTK toolkit to 
provide the graphical features needed to run applications on 
non-Microsoft platforms.

I've been looking at VB.net and C#.net for quite a while now and they 
are much improved versions of their predecessors (VB and J# meets C 
respectively)

> Learning C and C++ not only gives you much more skills that you can 
> push on
> any platform,  but the skills are close enough to Java and VB and C#, 
> that
> you can push the skills in those environment too, while learning the
> principles. The biggest problem with VB and C#, is that the next 
> version is
> seldom compatible with the last. These are not serious long term 
> development
> languages.

I agree that previous versions of VB were, in part, incompatible with 
their predecessors but to a degree VB.net is a totally new language, 
closer to how VB should have been from the start - and C# IS a totally 
new language. Microsoft are "betting the ranch" on these technologies 
and, as the Office suits have stabilised in file format and 
inter-operability, I believe that Microsoft have reached a similar 
point with their development environments now - you're unlikely to find 
huge changes leading to incompatibilities anymore.

I stick by my original suggestion that an understanding of .net is a 
good way to go. Whilst it may not end up with the highest paying job or 
a job on the world's most esoteric platform there are still a hell of a 
lot of Windows systems out there and the number is growing.

As for my reason why - well I want a job, and the moral high ground is 
not always compatible with quickly finding a job.

M at t :o)


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