From David Bolton,
Your Guide to C / C++ / C#.
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Pascal was devised as a teaching language a few years before C but was very limited with poor string and file handling. Several Manufacturers extended the language but there was no overall leader until Borland's Turbo Pascal (for Dos) and Delphi (for Windows) appeared. These were powerful implementations that added enough functionality to make them suitable for commercial development. However Borland was up against the much bigger Microsoft and lost the battle.

C++ - A Classy Language!

C++ or C plus classes as it was originally known came about ten years after C and successfully introduced Object Oriented Programming to C, as well as features like exceptions and templates. Learning all of C++ is a big task- it is by far the most complicated of the programming languages here but once you have mastered it, you'll have no difficulty with any other language.

C# - Microsoft's Big Bet

C# was created by Delphi's architect Anders Hejlsberg after he moved to Microsoft and Delphi developers will feel at home with features such as Windows forms.

C# syntax is very similar to Java, which is not surprising as Hejlsberg also worked on J++ after he moved to Microsoft. Learn C# and you are well on the way to knowing Java. Both languages are semi-compiled, so that instead of compiling to machine code, they compile to bytecode ( C# compiles to CIL but it and Bytecode are similar) and are then interpreted.

Javascript - Programs in your Browser

Javascript is nothing like Java, instead its a scripting language based on C syntax but with the addition of Objects and is used mainly in browsers. JavaScript is interpreted and a lot slower than compiled code but works well within a browser.

Invented by Netscape it has proved very successful and after several years in the doldrums is enjoying a new lease of life because of AJAX; Asynchronous Javascript and Xml. This allows parts of web pages to update from the server without redrawing the entire page.

ActionScript - A Flashy languasge!

ActionScript is an implementation of JavaScript, but exists solely within Macromedia Flash applications. Using vector based graphics, it is used mainly for games, playing videos and other visual effects and for developing sophisticated user interfaces, all running in the browser.

Basic for Beginners

Basic is an acronym for Beginners All purpose Symbolic Instruction Code and was created to teach programming in the 1960s. Microsoft have made the language their own with many different versions including VbScript for websites and the very successful Visual Basic. The latest version of that is VB.NET and this runs on the same platform .NET as C# and produces the same CIL bytecode.

Conclusion

While everyone has their favourite language and has invested time and resources in learning how to program it, there are some problems that are best solved with the right language.

E.G you wouldn't use C for writing web apps and you wouldn't write an Operating System in Javascript. But whichever language you choose, if it's C, C++ or C#, at least you know you're in the right place to learn it.

Links to Other Programming Language Resources

• C
• C++
• C#
• Delphi
• Flash
• Java
• JavaScript
• Perl
• PHP