• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

I'd like to learn C# or Java.. any opinions?

Obsoleet

Obsoleet

Platinum Member
I've done minor programming and scripting in my career thus far.. Coldfusion, Jscript, things of that nature. I have a relative that wants to start a minor game project using XNA, but I'm personally more interested in finding a project that uses Java due to it's (seemingly) more versatility.
That, and it's IDE (Eclipse) is free and I'm ready to go to work on Google apps or whatever my heart desires..

From those that really know coding, do you have any suggestion either way? I prefer to stay away from web programming too much, that seems to change too often. I'm not a career programmer, but am looking to add skills to expand/change my IT career in the future.. that and I genuinely enjoy programming over general ogre IT work. It's creative, and you get to create something, I like that.

Thanks
 
IMO if you want to do some game programming, C#/XNA is probably best.... I'm not aware of any Java equivalent to XNA. XNA will have tons of documentation/examples, and if you get good at C# Java will be easy to pick up.
 
I guess you're right. I never expect people to encourage (in any way) a MS sourced language/product. I just use, and want to use, what works for the goal.
 
Obsoleet said:
I guess you're right. I never expect people to encourage (in any way) a MS sourced language/product. I just use, and want to use, what works for the goal.
Click to expand...

Despite the FUD that comes out against MS, (and there is a lot of it) they make some of the best products around. Visual studios is the best IDE around (which in many ways is what makes C# an awesome language.)
 
Cogman said:
Despite the FUD that comes out against MS, (and there is a lot of it) they make some of the best products around. Visual studios is the best IDE around (which in many ways is what makes C# an awesome language.)
Click to expand...

Absolutely true.
 
Cogman said:
Despite the FUD that comes out against MS, (and there is a lot of it) they make some of the best products around. Visual studios is the best IDE around (which in many ways is what makes C# an awesome language.)
Click to expand...

This. I'd love to see a VS that works in *nix.
 
If the free IDE is influencing you, Visual Studio Express can be downloaded so you can at least start learning C#. It's gimped in some capacity, but if you're just starting out it will be more than sufficient. And I must concur, if XNA is your ultimate goal, C# is the way to go.

Also, if you happen to be a student, check out Microsoft's Dreamspark site. Students at participating institutions can download full versions of MS software for free. It's not for an indefinite period, but IIRC it's for at least a year.

HTH and have fun.
 
Last edited:
EvilManagedCare said:
Also, if you happen to be a student, check out Microsoft's Dreamspark site. Students at participating insitutions can download full versions of MS software for free. It's not for an indefinite period, but IIRC it's for at least a year.
Click to expand...

They don't give you free software for life, but the software you get doesn't have timebombs or anything, so if you DL VS2010 Pro today from DreamSpark, it will work as long as any other copy would.
 
Are there any licensing issues with using the dreamspark copy? I'd really like to be able to use plugins...and access to MFC would be nice as some of our stuff at work uses them and it would be nice to play around with at home.
 
PingSpike said:
Are there any licensing issues with using the dreamspark copy? I'd really like to be able to use plugins...and access to MFC would be nice as some of our stuff at work uses them and it would be nice to play around with at home.
Click to expand...

I believe the license says "non-commercial use", so you're legally not allowed to use it to develop something you want to sell.

Of course IANAL and I don't read the EULAs that closely, so I could be wrong on this.
 
Obscure has the gist of it... If you do use it and get to a point where you want to sell your software then just purchase a copy of VS and recompile it there. I don't know that you even need the recompile step as long as you have a valid VS license, but it can't hurt 😉
 
PingSpike said:
Are there any licensing issues with using the dreamspark copy? I'd really like to be able to use plugins...and access to MFC would be nice as some of our stuff at work uses them and it would be nice to play around with at home.
Click to expand...

You will have access to MFC in the full version issued from Dreamspark, but I believe Express Edition does not allow access to them (the MFC). AFAIK it's a regular copy of the software, but like OC mentioned, cannot use it for commercial purposes. By the same token, if it's a regular version, you should be able to use plugins, but honestly I don't know. I think you also have to prove your eligibility too every so often after downloading.
 
I graduated from the university a few years back.. missed that boat on the free IDE. I'm ok with paying for it if I program something amazing.. it's an interest/hobby for me like playing my drums.. nothing serious yet.
 
How do they prove you eligibility ever so often? I'm taking courses now, but not sure if I will be next year. Hmmm.
 
If you want to do a minor game and you like Eclpise, I would say go with Java on the Android. The SDK is free, there are several free samples in the SDK and you can sell the game on the marketplace. Good luck!
 
PingSpike said:
How do they prove you eligibility ever so often? I'm taking courses now, but not sure if I will be next year. Hmmm.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure. I had heard or read somewhere they verify your school email address on a yearly basis. But since I haven't been using Dreamspark software for a year yet I can't verify this.
 
Last edited:
KB said:
If you want to do a minor game and you like Eclpise, I would say go with Java on the Android. The SDK is free, there are several free samples in the SDK and you can sell the game on the marketplace. Good luck!
Click to expand...

Having used the Android SDK and XNA.... XNA is far superior in terms of ease of use, especially for beginners.
 
XNA, is especially nice if you want to distribute your game after its done. There are features in VS that allow you to incorporate any required packages in to the game installer (such as the XNA framework, which most people will not have).

+1 for VS being a great IDE.

Only thing to note is that C# is really high-level code in contrast to regular C or even C++, just so long as that doesn't bother you, and you understand regular C/C++, C# gets my vote
 
Cogman said:
Despite the FUD that comes out against MS, (and there is a lot of it) they make some of the best products around. Visual studios is the best IDE around (which in many ways is what makes C# an awesome language.)
Click to expand...

I used VS 2010 express for a simple app and it was crashing all the time. I generally agree with you that MS is not that bad as it's reputation but VS has been getting worse over the years, IMHO, in terms of stability. But maybe they messed up the express versions?

IMHO
netbeans >> VS 2010 Express

but the whole oracle buying sun stuff kind of lays a shadow over the whole java world...

XNA, is especially nice if you want to distribute your game after its done. There are features in VS that allow you to incorporate any required packages in to the game installer (such as the XNA framework, which most people will not have).
Click to expand...

That's easy with any half-decent java ide too.
 
beginner99 said:
I used VS 2010 express for a simple app and it was crashing all the time. I generally agree with you that MS is not that bad as it's reputation but VS has been getting worse over the years, IMHO, in terms of stability. But maybe they messed up the express versions?

IMHO
netbeans >> VS 2010 Express

but the whole oracle buying sun stuff kind of lays a shadow over the whole java world...



That's easy with any half-decent java ide too.
Click to expand...

Interesting, I have NEVER had visual studios crash. Not one single time. Perhaps you got a corrupted download, or maybe you have some other system instability.
 
Cogman said:
Interesting, I have NEVER had visual studios crash. Not one single time. Perhaps you got a corrupted download, or maybe you have some other system instability.
Click to expand...

I have win xp? Maybe that affects it. Or project on network drive.

Anyway I had pretty big issues which seemed random at times like error messages on building/running which made no sense and could be fixed by just restarting VS or the PC.
(I actually figured out a process called like "wpf font cache" seemed to cause certain issues. Killing it of helped sometimes)
2008 version worked fine
 
Cogman said:
Despite the FUD that comes out against MS, (and there is a lot of it) they make some of the best products around. Visual studios is the best IDE around (which in many ways is what makes C# an awesome language.)
Click to expand...

Development tools yes, but other products not so much. They seem to treat their developers a hell of a lot better than regular users.
 
beginner99 said:
I have win xp? Maybe that affects it. Or project on network drive.
Click to expand...

I have VS2008 Express at home on XP 64-bit, and for whatever reason it does not handle projects saved on a network drive. I'm not sure I had outright crashes, but I know I had lock ups. Sometimes they would load OK, but about half the time it would lock up for some reason forcing me to kill the task. When I moved the projects to my local hard disk (*sigh*) I never had any more problems.

I would have expected some marginally slower performance from this, but not outright lock ups.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top