C# is a Microsoft language standard. Microsoft provides its own "Introduction and Overview" here [L1 ] (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++.
"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" [L2 ])
Co-designers with Hejlsberg were Scott Wiltamuth and Peter Golde.
[Explain crucial role of CLI ...]
Visual Studio .NET ships with a C# compiler.
The C# compiler is also part of the free .NET preview download at [L3 ].
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")
[Tell what its real uses are.]
Can C# be used with Tcl or Tk?
2003/01/06 JJM - Yes, it can be used with Tcl/Tk via TCLBridge. 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.
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: