Merry Christmas
Just a short post to wish you all a very Happy Christmas. Spend some quality time with your family, and have a relaxing day. 
See you all in a couple of days!
Managed C++
Recently, I’ve been developing an application I hope to release commercially in early 2008 - an application I’ve tried to develop in a satisfactory way in a few languages so far (starting with Java, which prompted my long Java rant). The project has ended up being a sort of ‘test-bed’ for a bunch of languages, enabling me to compare the strengths and weaknesses on the same project, interacting with the same data source (an SQLite database) and with the same list of features. I’ve hit obstacles left, right and centre with different languages (Java’s non-native feel/transparency issues; C++’s lack of platform independence) - you name it, I’ve hit it.
And then along came Managed C++… quite what possessed me to even consider it rather than just lean on my - admittedly lean (no pun intended) - C# knowledge, I have no idea. But I did, and my goodness was it a hellish experience. The syntax is weird and really is not a sensible middle-ground between unmanaged C++ and C# - don’t even get me started on mixing managed and unmanaged code in MSVS. I can see why so many people have avoided it like the plague on gone straight on to using C#.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not knocking yet another language, I’m simply not seeing the point in this ‘go between’ language, that doesn’t exhibit the qualities of the base language, nor does it seem to aspire to the levels of it’s big brother. It seems like Microsoft dragged C++ into the platform independent age kicking and screaming - but then again, the matter of just how platform independent .NET is is another argument altogether… one for another day, I feel.
I can see myself doing a port of my code over to C# before commercial release - simply to stop me pulling my hair out repeatedly… I’d like to make it to at least my forties with my hair still intact.