Comparison between C++, C# and Java?

C++ wins, because the generated code is super fast, and there are tons of nice multimedia libraries for it.
C# is on the way to change that (WinFX, DirectX), but right now I think C++ is still better for games.
And Java, ... well it's too slow.

Here's C++ the looser, because it lacks productivity compared to Java and C#. C# is better than Java for business applications because the resulting applications look better, run faster and are more usable.

Nothing of the three. Use a combination of LISP and Python.

C# gets stronger and better right now, Java will die eventually.

C#, because it's better and it's by Microsoft. Seriously: Companies that switch from C++ to C# usually gain 50% productivity or so. Don't know about Java though.

I find C# easier than VB. VB just teaches you bad programming habits.

C++ has the most complete API, I would say, because you can get just any library for it. On the other hand you can't compare the C++ STL with a .NET framework class library.
C# and Java both have a very complete and easy to use class library, but when it comes to additional stuff, like, using 3rd party libraries, C++ is the better choice.

i just hate the people that post daft questions.

Java is still a child. C# is a Java clone. Business software already uses both of them, because they have pre-built stuff, because OO programing on them are hundreds of time easier than on C++, because they're easily compilable, hence easy to make little changes, updates.
For games, compiled languages will always be more used, they're faster, and the previous "goodies" aren't much applied here, C++ is enough.

BAF: what does .NET have over Java's standard libraries?

One of the wins Java has over C#/.NET is it's been around a bit longer and there's a huge wealth of libraries (many open source) available already. Plus you have stuff like applets and web start if you're dealing with that...

C# has the advantage of being designed for Windows, so its programs will feel more like native windows programs than Java programs will.

I think with much of game programming going into hardware (IE graphics), the "slowness" of Java or C# is much less of an issue. Most people these days aren't going to be writing games that are cpu-limited, or they're just using the wrong data structures.

Obvious advantages of Java/C# over C++ is ease of development, and for businesses that's a definite win. Also potentially more stable/reliable by design (garbage collection etc). You can have less experienced (and thus cheaper) programmers developing in Java/C# and still get the job done (I'm dumb! @ thedailywtf.com though).

Definitely for web applications C++ is just stupid these days. You need something that can be dynamically compiled/reloaded easily/on the fly.

I will probably try to develop my next game in Java, if only as a self-challenge and to see how reasonable it is (there are a few java game libraries out there, but I haven't really played with them much), but my guess is it's at least feasible now. (Freaking nonstop crashes and system incompatibility with c++/openlayer kinda pissed me off of using C++.)

Marcello

Would you (ie, any of you) install Mono, .GNU or .NET if someone programmed a freeware game or would you all expect native binaries?

[edit]
... and one of the compatible Java software?

...and...

So pretty much download this file, extract to its own folder, and double click on ltln.exe (or run mono ltln.exe). If you properly installed the Tao framework (you can get binaries for that at http://www.taoframework.com), you will get a working application. It uses OpenGL through C#, and that particular binary was compiled from Linux. It works in Windows, too, I promise.

The nice thing about all of this is that someone can make a C# wrapper for OpenLayer, and then we will all be one big happy family. I'm still deciding whether or not I want to write the wrapper. I want to, but then again so far I have just taken OpenGL commands straight from OpenLayer's source and it has worked fine

In conclusion, how much of Allegro does OpenLayer really encapsulate? If writing a wrapper for OpenLayer would actually involve writing a wrapper for Allegro also, then I'm not interested. But if it's possible to get all of Allegro hidden under OpenLayer, then writing a wrapper would be a breeze (relatively).

PORT IT TO JAVA! :-D

Marcello

I've made bad experiences with mono. I once installed it on my system, including a bunch of applications that use it (Tomboy, Beagle, Banshee, ...). Every three boots or so I encountered 100% CPU usage, which always was one of these mono apps running in some endless loop. (I think it was mono itself, because it happened with every mono application now and then).
I really hope that mono gets better and more complete in the future, but I believe this only starts to happen if Microsoft supports it with some developers (nothing against the mono hackers, but Microsoft devs have more knowledge about their own framework/system).

Mono is developed by Novell, and Microsoft's framework is simply an API that is open to anyone. The language itself is a published spec also.

What version of Mono were you using? Very recently (within this month, I think: http://www.go-mono.com/archive/1.1.16/) they have pushed a new version, featuring lots of bugfixes.

Will you use jogl?

Marcello

Actually William, they both work, not high performance, but work very well. Eclipse is the best IDE I've ever seen, and it's java, and if you have enough memory (more than 512mb ram) it's perfect, better than any microsoft crappy shit