C# No, C++ Yes

The difficult thing about this book for me is that I do hope that I can avoid C# all of my life and C# and C++ are given about equal time throughout this book. As the author points out on page 561, "C# is a wonderful language, but it often leaves you wondering if you can do more, and when you discover that you have reached the limits of the language, you realize it is time to get back to C++." Haven't we had enough of Visual Basic, and Java? Now C#? Why not C++? Why do we have to wade through explanations for both C# and C++ on every subject. If we spent as much time on a real language like C++ as we have spent over the years becoming multilingual we could be C++ masters. I always remember that, other things being equal, faster is better. And I have never seen any other language except Assembler come close to the speed of execution of C and C++. This book would be better if it were two different books - one addressing C++ only and one addressing any other would-be language.

In the Summary of Chapter 7, Mr. Grimes states that "All in all, C++ is the language for .NET development, and I hope that you, like me, will recover from a brief flirtation with other .NET languages and return to the best language for the job: C++."

In Chapter 8, Application Development, Mr. Grimes elects to disregard his own advice and gives every single example in C#. How quickly hope for a return to sanity was dashed!

Other Reviews

• C# No, C++ Yes
• Gem of a book - pays for itself in days
• Quality book that offers a lot of insight into .NET
• Good book if you can choke down "Managed C++"