What is so sharp about C#?

I was going through a list of articles available on the INETA website. I came across an article with the heading “Why C # is sharp and why is VB.NET basic?” Hmmm… However, the author has no intentions of looking down upon VB. I have done quite a few projects in VB 6. I am still a VB enthusiast because what I like most about it, is its simplicity and ability to do amazing stuff with little effort (directly proportional to coding?? Ahem…).

A few days back, I had read an extensive comparison between 11 languages in the September 2004 edition of DIQ (Developer IQ http://www.developeriq.com). It was called “The Great Language Shootout”. The article tabulates the results with C# scoring an overall 68pts and Java landing at 65pts. The article also explains in detail about the evaluation process. These figures are clearly just indicators of a test process and cannot form the basis to decide the power and application of any language or its future.

Unable to resist the temptation, I decided to write a simple HelloWorld… nope not just World… HelloManagedWorld program in C#. Managed because, I’m using the .NET csc compiler.

The code:

using System;
class helloManagedWorld
{
static void Main()
{
Console.WriteLine("Hello Managed World!");
}
}

Some explanation:

The using System; directive references a namespace called System that is provided by the Microsoft .NET Framework class library. This namespace contains the Console class referred to in the Main method. Namespaces provide a hierarchical means of organizing the elements of one or more programs. A “using” directive enables unqualified use of the types that are members of the namespace. The “Hello Managed World!” program uses Console.WriteLine as shorthand for System.Console.WriteLine.

The Main method is a member of the class helloManagedWorld. It has the static modifier, and so it is a method on the class helloManagedWorld rather than on instances of this class.

The entry point for an application—the method that is called to begin execution—is always a static method named Main.

How to compile the geeky way (ie. if you only have the .NET Framework, without VS.NET):
I started off with some errors as usual... case sensitivity and some syntax problems…

C:\WINNT\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.0.3705>csc helloWorld.cs
Microsoft (R) Visual C# .NET Compiler version 7.00.9466
for Microsoft (R) .NET Framework version 1.0.3705
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation 2001. All rights reserved.

helloWorld.cs(4,30): error CS1552: Array type specifier, [], must appear before
parameter name

C:\WINNT\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.0.3705>csc helloWorld.cs
Microsoft (R) Visual C# .NET Compiler version 7.00.9466
for Microsoft (R) .NET Framework version 1.0.3705
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation 2001. All rights reserved.

error CS5001: Program 'helloWorld.exe' does not have an entry point defined

C:\WINNT\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.0.3705>csc helloWorld.cs
Microsoft (R) Visual C# .NET Compiler version 7.00.9466
for Microsoft (R) .NET Framework version 1.0.3705
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation 2001. All rights reserved.

C:\WINNT\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.0.3705>helloWorld
Hello World!

Wasn’t that simple enough? So this is just the beginning. Lets see where I go from here. :-)