CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#c++winapiunmanagedmanaged
Miguel
Miguel

Reputation: 3496

Unmanaged C++ Win32 API or C#?

Good afternoon,

I thought about writing an application which I may or may not commercialize, depending on how good the final application is. It is like a personal project, with which I hope to learn many more things about programming, for currently I only know most about C and C#. That's why I thought about starting this project as an unmanaged C++ Win32 application. The problem is that it is most dificult to even show a simple window when compared to C#...

How many people/companies use the Win32 API & C++ in today's business world? How does it perform in comparison with C#?

The application in question may eventually be an IDE for a specific language but whith features like command recognition and spell checking already built in.

Thank you very much.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 1633

Answers (6)

Cristian Adam
Cristian Adam

Reputation: 4844

It seems that when performance is needed people are willing to give up C# for C++. Have a look at this "success" story Lessons from Evernote’s flight from .NET.

On our test hardware, Evernote 4 starts five times faster, and uses half the memory of Evernote 3.5.

Evernote chose WTL and Chromium Embedded Framework. Basically they've reused Google's Chrome in their application.

Upvotes: 3

Eric
Eric

Reputation: 6425

C# is the easy route, and the route most-often pushed by Microsoft. What they don't tell you, though, is that all of their headline products (parts of Visual Studio excepted) are written in C/C++. I'd say, in fact, that most major software packages you are familiar with are written in C/C++.

Upvotes: 2

user470760
user470760

Reputation:

I have only been using C++ for quite a few years, but I have never had to write any programs which required a User Interface. When I did, I tried to learn to use Qt, but found it to be somewhat of a pain and eventually gave up. I recently just started taking a class on C# .NET and in the first week I have already started developing a pretty advanced application for my companies billing system.

If you were already a seasoned C++ veteran and preferred it over C# .NET, then I would say by all means go for it. In this case however, I would strongly recommend you go with C# .NET for quite a few reasons.

1) The time is takes to do something in C# will probably be at the very least about 10x faster than doing it in C++ regardless of the API you used.

2) The learning curve of C++ on top of already trying to write an application with a UI (which is already very difficult in C++) will make this take an extremely long time.

Upvotes: 0

Hassan
Hassan

Reputation: 2633

I'd go with c# too, as it is far more common in a business world (on GUI side at least), than unmanaged c++/win32. You'll also get your desired results faster, especially if you don't know c++.

On the other hand, c++ performs better (if written properly) - so if you are planning some intensive work in your app - maybe c# just won't handle it (but I strongly doubt this is the case).

At last, but not the least - if you are planning for clients, that for some reason do not have and can not get .NET framework (or any other framework, i.e. Java) - then native code is your only solution.

Upvotes: 0

Moo-Juice
Moo-Juice

Reputation: 38825

I'm a huge fan of C++ under windows, I've been doing it most of my adult life. That said, if you have no experience of C++, and you want to write a windows application, I'd suggest going with the C# route under .NET. Whilst I love native C++, I really disliked C++/CLI, and the horrid ^ suffix for references.

Given this is a personal project, I wouldn't worry too much about whether businesses use C++ or C#, but I will say that it is easier to find a C# developer these days than it is a C++ developer. And no, I am not favouring one language over the other here, it just appears to be the reality (at least in my experience). As for C++/CLI developers? They're kind of thin on the ground :)

You'll definitely be up and running faster with C# than you would with Visual C++/MFC/some-other-gui, but remember there are certain things you may not be able to do in C# (and have to import the native win32 calls via DllImport), but I doubt you'll come across these fringe cases just yet.

Upvotes: 2

Jas
Jas

Reputation: 1141

For your first project and w/o prior C++ and Win32 experience, I would STRONGLY recommend you use the C# , as it will be easier for you to get something done thereby gaining confidence and skill as you go.

Upvotes: 2

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