Hi bungrider, Your question is far from stupid, you certainly asked a highly relevant question. Asking about languages is about the same thing as asking people about their doggies. You will get highly emotional answers from people defending the often illusionary superior qualities of their dogs. Now more serious: If you don't see the difference between C and C++, stick with C. In fact before the name C++ was coined it was called "C with classes". Classes are the cornerstone of "Object Oriented Programming" (OOP). The mastery of OOP requires a lot of study but gives you access to the software development knowhow accumulated over the last 10 to 20 years. The significance of C/C++ versus C# and Java is an important question to many people. This can best be answered looking back at hard factual evidence. Cobol and Fortran at one time introduced very significant progress in the software development process. They are still with us about 50 years later. C was the cornerstone of the UNIX development effort way back in the 70's at Bell Telephone Laboratories. Most operating systems today are written in C/C++ (WindowsNT included). Languages these days have become an essential commercial ingredient in the "struggle for survival" between mega-powers. Java and C# must be seen in this light. These languages constituted perhaps some progress in certain areas. This is far from proven though, in spite of the loud claims about their longevity by many "doggie owners". Java right now seems to have had its best days. Not much hullabaloo seems to float around anymore about its intrinsic merits. C# is M$'s gimmick. I will only say this about this. A very substantial literature exists about C and C++ and its historical development. "The C (C++) Programming Language" by Kerninghan & Ritchie is perhaps the most significant work ever printed on software. Bjarne Stroustrup wrote several books on his C++ and the ideas behind it. Did he also not write something like: "expensive toys unfit to solve real problems" talking about other languages being touted. At least, one can say that his C++ indeed has solved many problems. Where do we go from here bungrider? Given that you are like many puzzled by the distinction between C and C++, you should perhaps look at something different. Java or C#, I doubt it. This is simply C and C++ plastered over without the help of giants like Kerninghan, Ritchie and Stroustrup. What I believe merits some attention today is Python. This is a scripting language (like Java). It is superbly multiplatform, it is OOP and it is free. It also maintains a full compatibility with C and C++. It is known as a RAD language (rapid application development). Comparing Java and C# against C and C++ I must say that I cannot really see any improvement in looking at the way this changed the length of code or decreased the effort to write something. Doing the same program in Python leads to a much reduced code length with an extreme level of clarity. If you find this hard to believe, go to www.python.org. You find all the references on how to set it up on your Windows or on your Linux or Mac systems. Download your version and give it a try. Possibly 50 years from now you still will be writing in Python. People may not remember C# or Java anymore at such time. Don't believe it is possible? Did you ever hear about PL/1? No? This was touted by IBM at the end of the 60's as "THE" big and final word in programming languages. For about 20 years they had the whole world (IBM) at their knees extolling the merits of this great discovery. Today, PL/1 forgotten and survived by Cobol and Fortran they said it should have pushed away! I will go on record: in 50 years people will still know about Cobol, Fortran, C or C++ and probably about Python. P.S. In a later post you mentioned Linux. If you don't know Python yet, you havn't seen anything yet! Make the right pick for you bungrider, Good to you, nononsense
Agree with axeman. No to C++. C# is a sophisticated and powerful language, also it's very Microsoft oriented language. Guys around here are traders and using Windows, I assume. So just chose C# instead of Java.
By your logic why not say: "Guys around here are traders and using Windows, I assume. So just run away from it as fast as you can and never chose C# or Java". As I trader I learned that being succesful requires being a lot more thoughtful than uttering empty slogans. nononsense
Fine, I was too lazy for a computer illiterate like you to make the points clear enough. Also, I cannot see your logic between " " against my logic.
Sorry about this SmoothTrader, I did what I could. Please read my posting, don't be too lazy and keep up believing. Be good, nononsense
OK, looks like you can do stuff reading your last post in a neighbor thread. Now, you Want to use Linux and Python, and could not take advantage of C# and .NET. That is your Logic(or propaganda). I never understand why people recommend minor programming languages or Linux to a begginer. It's a fact that VB used to be a king for beginners. No one said Java or C++ for them. Now, C# and VB.net is the alternative of VB6 and more powerful than it. NetFramework has very rich library. It's just natural I recommend C# to beginners.
Nononsense, you provided a good tutorial on language histories. I got your point after reading that. But do you admit C++ is too complicated?
Hi dude, Before calling somebody computer illiterate, please do your homework! You mouth off about a lot of things that you don't know a f*cking b*ll off! You just posted the above sequel in another thread on the ET softwarwe board. "You know why web search engine such as Google is so fast?" Do you know what language Google is written in? Please tell us know-nothing f*ck-head! It's written in Python! Yours truly, nononsense