Using .NET in programming.

[Deviance]

Has anyone tried using it yet. I want to know if it would be good or not to be used for.

[Ganonator]

Absolute best interface ever. I've been using it for about 2 years, and although there are a few issues with Intellisense, it builds faster, supports more features, and is made by everybody's favorite company, Microsoft (= product support).

Do it!

[Cloral]

We use it at work. So it is something that is used and would be useful to know. But use C++, not C# or VB - C++ is still the industry standard, and there are no signs that this will change anytime soon.

[AtmaWeapon]

If you are planning on writing Windows programs at all, your career options will be minimal at best within 5 years if you don't use .NET.

.NET is excellent for all the little things I used to write Perl scripts and C++ snippets for, because I can slap a UI on it in no time.

However, it helps to consider what you are trying to do. .NET in its current incarnation (and probably until Longhorn) is primarily targetting business applications, and a lot more work has gone into the ASP side than the Windows Forms side (MS had this grand vision where everyone ran apps through IE over the internet. Yeah, whatever.)

The most popular .NET languages (C# and VB) are NOT good for most gaming tasks, though (neither is VB6). GDI+ just isn't made to push pixels like DirectX can. Of course, DirectX 9 is fully managed and you can use C# and VB .NET with it, but really and truly C++ rocks the gaming world.

(On that note: Cloral, you might want to specify just what industry you are speaking of when you say "industry standard". In my neck of the industry, VB .NET and RPG are the only languages people look for ;))

C++ is a tough language and really I wish I could say that there is an easier starting point. However, C++ teaches you things about the internals of the computer that are very valuable when applied to other languages. If you jump straight to C# without decent knowledge of C++ you'll be churning out code that will make the Lord strike you down in anger. Also you'll make a lot of "I keep getting System.NullReferenceException WTF is that" posts and I'm tired of those.

To me, C++ is like a test. If you can't handle C++ up to at least an intermediate level, you should really consider another hobby because programming will be nothing but disappointment and frustration for you.

[Cloral]

Actually, while I didn't start with it, from what I've seen of it I'd say that Java is an excellent starting language. Plus it's free which is always a plus when you start out.

PS: AtmaWeapon, I figured the pictures in my sig made it clear which part of the industry I work in. ;)

[theplustwo]

Java is actually a pretty good starting language. VB makes a somewhat bad starting language in my opinion. While the VB IDE is pretty much TBE*, the fact that the syntax in VB is so different from pretty much every other language (while C++, C#, Java, PHP, etc. etc. are fairly similar) makes it difficult for people to switch away from VB into anything else.

*Teh Best Evar

[Beldaran]

C# is used for a LOT of game development now. They don't code rendering engines in it so much, but they do a lot of tools development in C#. The .NET framework has a component called Managed DirectX, which is basically a DirectX API that takes into account the garbage collector. As Atma said, UI development in .NET is sex, so a lot of game devs use C# to save time when writing tools.

[Rainman]

I really don't recommend it for small programming. However, if you plan on taking larger projects down the line then .NET is a good program for that.

[AtmaWeapon]

I really don't recommend it for small programming. However, if you plan on taking larger projects down the line then .NET is a good program for that.This confuses me. I have several utility apps laying around that are nothing more than string processing on TextBoxes; many weigh in at less than 100 lines of non-Form code. To me .NET seems to fill large and small project gaps pretty well.

[Rainman]

This confuses me. I have several utility apps laying around that are nothing more than string processing on TextBoxes; many weigh in at less than 100 lines of non-Form code. To me .NET seems to fill large and small project gaps pretty well.

.NET has been ungodly annoying with my simple homework assignments. I spent a good portion of my time making sure that the project is formatted right and what not. I had a much better time with my old dos compilers. I can see how it'd be good for large programs, but it's been annoying for my small, "still learing" projects.

[Solaris_Omega]

The most popular .NET languages (C# and VB) are NOT good for most gaming tasks, though (neither is VB6). GDI+ just isn't made to push pixels like DirectX can. Of course, DirectX 9 is fully managed and you can use C# and VB .NET with it, but really and truly C++ rocks the gaming world.

VB6 can use DirectX... Thats what is running the engine that runs SE.
www.baronsoft.com (http://www.baronsoft.com)
they have two engines here. One that uses DirectDraw with DX7 and another 2d engine that uses DX8 for the backbone

[Ganonator]

.NET has been ungodly annoying with my simple homework assignments. I spent a good portion of my time making sure that the project is formatted right and what not. I had a much better time with my old dos compilers. I can see how it'd be good for large programs, but it's been annoying for my small, "still learing" projects.
This is why I keep a copy of VC++6 on my computer just for small projects. I don't need any solution files, special include directories, or simply switches from Debug to Release.

I guess if you have VS.net, you're going to need to know how to use it.