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Originally Posted by bobkoure
[rant]
...and is a total nightmare if you're trying to interface it with a device/language that the .NET providers didn't foresee (spent a very miserable month making an already-built .NET system work with RS232 of all things... Problem was the original prototype was built by a hardware engineer who only knew VB - and the "powers that be" decided to just use the prototype as a "real product".)
If you need multi platform graphical support, have a look at wxWidgets. I've built graphical apps that (with an appropriate re-compile) work on Win, Mac, and Linux and are not bloat-ware - and is easily connected with lower level modules.
And if you want fast-built multi-platform apps, there's Java (netbeans looks pretty good). BTW, netbeans and wxWidgets are both free. Beats me why someone would limit themselves with .NET other than "doesn't know any better" - or maybe "wants to get really locked into the wintel world" 
[/rant] |
I have to preface this with my personal feelings. I really hate defending Microsoft. I prefer Unix. I prefer open source tools. I hate using a proprietary language locked to a single proprietary platform. I even have a license plate in my cube that reads "UNIX" with "Live Free or Die!" as the byline. I used 386BSD, back when it was the first free Unix (not counting Minix). That was BEFORE Linux was even released. I loved my SunOS workstation.
But...
.NET is a nightmare of epic proportions. I know. I've been working on a .NET project for the last 2 years with four other SW engineers (that might tell you the scope of the project). However, given certain limitations, it is better than C++ and MFC.
First, the company isn't interested in portability. I made quite a row over this, but the company just isn't interested. That makes the largest of the .NET problems go away.
Second, the company isn't interested in doing anything exotic with the program, such as interfacing with odd HW, doing anything timing sensitive, or running with a memory budget. In other words, the company is happy with bloatware.
Finally, they wanted something that is low risk. Microsoft has a much better track record than Sun. Sorry, Sun. Microsoft isn't dying like you are. I like Sun. I like Sun much more than Microsoft, but Sun isn't taking marketshare from Microsoft. It's the other way around. So, our customer base in 5 years is likely to be more Microsoft-based than Sun-based.
The benefits of .NET (same as Java) are that it does away with a primary source of software errors: memory management. I dread working on someone else's code that has a memory leak or a use of uninitialized memory. Also, the IDE is fairly nice, even if it wants gobs of memory and occasionally crashes. Gcc crashes occasionally, too.
As long as you exhale, use plenty of lube, relax and smile, using .NET can be OK. Just don't expect it to work well doing anything unexpected. Do things that Microsoft is interested in, the MicrosoftWay(tm), and it works well.