Updated 2012-08-27 16:56:12 by LkpPo ▲

C# is a Microsoft language standard. Microsoft provides its own "Introduction and Overview" here [1] (but note that MS moves its Web pages around quite capriciously; this page is likely to expire at any time). Widely-respected Chief C# Architect Anders Hejlsberg emphasizes that though ideas from Java, Smalltalk, and [Modula] influenced C#, his focus was to make it close to C++.

BR - It's either a (proprietary) Microsoft thing or a standard, it can't be both, can it? The language is supported by ECMA so there is a standard. It remains to be seen, whether Microsoft will submit the changes it makes to ECMA within a reasonable time-frame, so that the language stays "standard".

"The first widely distributed implementation of C# was released by Microsoft in July 2000, as part of its .NET Framework initiative. . . . C# is intended to be a simple, modern, general-purpose, object oriented programming language." (from "C# Language Specification" [2])

Co-designers with Hejlsberg were Scott Wiltamuth and Peter Golde.

[Explain crucial role of CLR ...]

Visual Studio .NET ships with a C# compiler.

The C# compiler is also part of the free .NET preview download at [3].

SharpDevelop is an open source IDE for .Net: http://www.icsharpcode.net/OpenSource/SD/Default.aspx

Mono is an Open Source version of C# and its related libraries.
 [explain how it's like Java and C++]

For what is C# used?

"C# is intended to be suitable for writing applications for both hosted and embedded systems, ranging from the very large that use sophisticated operating systems, down to the very small having dedicated functions.

Although C# applications are intended to be economical with regards to memory and processing power requirements, the language was not intended to compete directly on performance and size with C or assembly language." (from "C# Language Specification")

"Microsoft Hits a New Programming Note" was supposed to tell more of the real C# story, but was "edited to fit" down to this [4] size.

Can C# be used with Tcl or Tk?

2003/01/06 JJM - Yes, it can be used with Tcl/Tk via TclBridge.

2008/09/16 JJM - Also, see Eagle, a Tcl implementation in C# (also allows full access to "real" Tcl/Tk).

CL hopes to return at some point to argue that there are other potential links between C# and Tcl/Tk--though TclBridge is certainly a fine one on its own.

See also the example "platform-independent UI (PIGUI)" that uses Tcl and Tk. This comes with the "Shared Source" version of the CLI and the C# and JScript compilers at [5]. Very interesting stuff, coming from MS themself! It shows how to integrate directly by just declaring the Tcl and Tk DLL interfaces in C#.

Tcl Interpreter in C# Application sample of usage of tcl84.dll from C# Application by using PInvoke.

Yet another way C# and Tcl co-operate is through ticklesharp.

There's a great deal of competition for mindshare among those who think they want to program with C#. Among the leading online resources are:

Category Language