Java, C# or C++, Which Is Better?

Sometimes, you have to look to the past to see the future. To see the future of our more popular programming languages including Java, C#, Visual Basic, C/C++, let’s first review their histories.

Is C/C++ the Best Programming Language?

The C programming language was standardized in the early 70s for the UNIX operating system (and not Windows) by Dennis Ritchie.

In the early 80s Bjarne Stroustrup at Bell Labs invented the C++ programming language as classes that extend the C language.

The C/C++ programming language is primarily used in writing operating systems, video games, device drivers, embedded systems and commercial, shrink-wrapped windows based software programs.

In the MS-DOS or Windows 3.1 era, C/C++ was probably the most capable compiler for developing windows based programs

Is Visual Basic the Best Programming Language?

The folks at Microsoft who were the sharpest minds in the software development business at that time realized that they were not catering enough to hobby or beginner programmers … keeping in mind that Bill Gates started his career as a hobby programmer without any formal computer science college education.

The issue was that working with C/C++ or most of the programming languages in existence at that time, required a strong computer science background or a formal computer science college education and lots of tedious, coding hours.

At that time, programmers had to repetitively code for mundane windows features or behaviors like detecting or responding to keyboard clicks or mouse movements.

So, in keeping with their founder’s (Bill Gates) history, Microsoft decided to do away with a lot of the repetitious, boring coding by developing Visual Basic (VB) 1.0 as a Drag and Drop, User Interface Driven, Rapid Application Development Environment.

VB 1.0 was introduced in 1991 to make computer programming accessible to everyone including hobby programmers, inexperienced software developers, beginners or anyone without a strong, formal, computer science background.

Visual Basic succeeded at making programming fun, less tedious or less expensive by giving programmers an easier, more productive coding environment.

A Paradigm Shift in Computing

Because of Visual Basic, millions of professionals without a formal computer science college education or background could learn how to program or get fun jobs without experiencing the drudgery or pain traditionally associated with programming languages.

Because of this paradigm shift, business owners could bring their windows software projects more quickly to market because the amount of time that programmers spend writing code had been dramatically reduced.

This paradigm shift also separated systems programming for which C/C++ was still the best from windows-based business software development for which Visual Basic was better suited.

What differentiated Visual Basic was its graphical, windows development environment which allowed inexperienced programmers to write less code by dragging or dropping pre-built windows features from a toolbox!

This meant that programmers no longer had to write thousands of lines of code before their software would receive user input in data entry forms, interact with back-end databases or detect and respond to mouse or keyboard actions from users.

Is Java the Best Programming Language?

While Microsoft was busy at work, the Internet appeared as if from nowhere and pulled the rug from other programming languages like Visual Basic and C/C++ which were not designed with the Web in mind.

The question no longer was “can you program in visual basic” but rather “can you program for the web or build a website?“

Sun Microsystems answered that question by releasing Java in 1995 with the intention that unlike Microsoft software, Java programs will run easily on web browsers and is portable to most hardware or software environments.

Java became very popular for many reasons. It was a superior object oriented programming language to Visual Basic which at that time was not object oriented.

Java was easier to code with than C/C++ and Sun designed Java programs so you could port or run them on all sorts of hardware systems unlike Visual Basic or C/C++.

Though Java became popular in the late 90s with experienced programmers, it still lacked Rapid Application Development features just like its cousin C/C++.

Today, Java still does not appeal to inexperienced software developers, beginner programmers or web developers without a strong, formal computer science education.

Java is also not the language of choice for writing web applications or designing websites! Web application development skills are currently more in demand than windows, systems, hardware programming skills.

Is C# the Best Programming Language?

Then Microsoft had another brainwave and released C# in February 13th 2002 which changed the web and windows programming industry again.

Here was a programming language that incorporated the object oriented programming capabilities of Java or C/C+ and the Rapid Application Development environment of classic Visual Basic and at the same time, provided a first-class web programming environment!

With all the facts in this article in mind, here are my recommendations for choosing a programming language.

• Lower Learning Curves Is Good For You

  C/C++ has the highest learning curve (level of difficulty) followed by Java.

  C# is the easiest of the three (3) programming languages to learn because of its Visual or Graphical Programming features and language intellisense, which explains the meaning of programming commands as you type!

  C# also offers a large set of pre-built classes that save you from writing thousands of repetitious lines of code before you read, write or update databases or accept user input.

• Acing Programming Interviews or Finding A Job

  Acing a programming interview or finding a job depends on your mastery of the programming language in question.

  Keep in mind find that mastering C# is easier than learning Java which in turn is easier than learning C/C++.

  Also, C# is preferred to either C/C++ or Java for building web applications.

  This means that if you want a web development career, you will do better to choose C# over Java or C/C++!

• Bringing It To Market Matters Most

  The speed or ease with which you write code determines the time, money or effort required to complete a software development project.

  That is why it takes longer to build websites in C/C++ compared to Java. That is also why C# is easier or most productive for building web or windows applications compared to C/C++ or Java.

  Finally, software development managers are typically more concerned about the ease or speed with which you code than how fast your code runs, keep in mind that C/C++ is the the fastest or how portable your program is: Java is designed with portability in mind.

• Code Potability or Processor Speed Is Irrelevant

  The amount of processing power available to Computer power has been dramatically boosted since the 90s.

  Software programs now run in 4GB to 8GB of memory instead of 256MB.

  Furthermore, computer processing power has grown from 16MHZ to QUAD CORE 2GHZ CPUs.

  So, the speed of your compiled software code is no longer a determining or driving business factor for most software development projects.

  The web / internet removes the need to address the question of code portability because HTML, XHTML and CSS is the native programming language for the web.

  Your Web Software is 100% portable if it emits pure or valid HTML, XHTML or CSS, so saying that Java is portable gets you nowhere!

Please answer the questions below. But before you answer the questions posted below, take a moment to read this article titled: “Is Learning C/C++ Programming Language Good For You?”

Discussion Questions

1. Today, we live in a digital, information rich, mobile, internet era and my first question is: “how relevant is C/C++, Java, C# to the Web / Internet Age?“

2. What is the difference between Operating Systems / Hardware programming and Business Software Application programming?

3. No one programming language is best suited for every project. With this in mind, “what sort of software development project is each of these programming languages best suited for: Java, C#, C/C++?“

This post answers a question posted by Josh on the quickest way to get into a computer programmer career..

What Is The Toughest Challenge Facing Your Career?

Visit the Shopping Cart, Click Here

ABOUT TRAINING & COACHING COURSES

• Business Analyst Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Business Analyst Video Training


• SQL Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Hands On, SQL + RDBMS Video Training


• Software Developer Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Software Developer Video Training


• Data Analysts Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Hands On, Data Analyst Video Training


• Get Hired Fast - Online, Web Based, Resume + Job Search + Interview Video Training


• Become A Leader Coaching - Develop hands-on experience, gain domain expertise, solve industry problems, Stand Up and Be Noticed, market your career using PULL instead of PUSH techniques!

Visit our Shopping Cart

]]>

I just got an email from one of my blog readers who wants to become a C++
programmer and works for a business that uses C++ to build web applications.
Here is an excerpt from the email (the name of the reader was removed to keep
the identity private).

… Still new to this but one of the guys from my group suggested C++
programing as a starting point. What do you think and whats the path to take
from the starting point to marketing myself as a programmer. I do various things
but just want to know how to ge myself out there to get at least 70,000. I have
some real lite help desk data center exp.

Okay, I have a question for you or anyone reading this right now. Do you
currently build web applications with C++? If you do, please drop me a line
telling me why you use C++ for building web applications instead of Java, C#,
VB.NET, PHP or Ruby.

Building Web Applications In C++

The answer to the question "can you build web applications with C++?" is
yes. However, my question to you is why the heck would you want to do that?
What special features, capabilities or requirements are you addressing with C++
that cannot be suitably addressed by C#, VB.NET, Java, Ruby or PHP? Read this
post I made on the suitability of C++ for building web applications

target="_blank" title="building software applications with C++">By Clicking
Here

How to Become A C++ Programmer

The answer to the question "can I become a C++ programmer?" is yes.
However, my question to this reader is why would you want to become a C++
programmer at this stage in the software development industry?

I understand that there are special reasons why you may want to become a C++
programmer. If you want to become a video game developer and develop computation
intensive rendering algorithms

target="_blank" title="Wikipedia on video game rendering algorithms">(click
here to read about rendering on Wikipedia) or develop device drivers

title="read about device drivers on Wikipedia">(click here to read about
device drivers on Wikipedia) or something of that nature, yes, you should
probably master the C/C++ languages. However, if you are really on that type
of career track, you should probably go to college and get a BSc, MSc and PhD in
Computer Science!

However, if you really want to make a career out of developing web applications
or software applications for businesses, C++ will NOT be your primary
programming language! If you are interested in learning more about this
topic, then read my informed advice about the suitability of C++ for building
software applications
target="_blank" title="how to build web applications in C++">by clicking
on this link to get more information

Should You Become A C++ Software Developer?

Hey, the primary language of choice for commercial web applications or software
applications is not C++. The software development industry has matured to the
point that other languages like C#, Java, VB.NET are better suited for building
enterprise, high-performing, scalable, reliable, maintainable web applications.
If you think C++ is a better candidate for building web applications, you may
be leaving in the past and it is time for you to wake up!

How To Become A Professional Software Developer By Following A Proven Path

If you want to become a professional software developer by following a proven
path or if you want to quit wasting your time by chasing rabbit trails,
get a copy of the book described here:
title="how to become a professional software developer">"how to become a
professional software developer".

If you get the recommended book, you can teach yourself programming or
you can let me help you become a professional programmer by following the proven
path described on this page: title="training to become a professional software developer">"training to
become a professional software developer"

Whether you title="teach yourself programming">teach yourself programming or
you title="software developer training">get software developer training,
make sure you use one of the two proven paths to become a professional computer
programmer.

About The Author

My name is Kingsley Tagbo and I’m a technical expert living in Saint Louis,
Missouri. I write about the training, coaching, mentoring
and personal development of software development professionals including
business analysts, computer programmers, testers, project managers, web
designers, data analysts, report writers, software developers and other
information technology professionals .

My firm, Exacticity, performs software development consulting and training for
clients throughout the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and New
Zealand. If you are in need of software development consultants or training,
title="contact the author">click here to get in touch with me.

What Is The Toughest Challenge Facing Your Career?

Visit the Shopping Cart, Click Here

ABOUT TRAINING & COACHING COURSES

• Business Analyst Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Business Analyst Video Training


• SQL Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Hands On, SQL + RDBMS Video Training


• Software Developer Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Software Developer Video Training


• Data Analysts Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Hands On, Data Analyst Video Training


• Get Hired Fast - Online, Web Based, Resume + Job Search + Interview Video Training


• Become A Leader Coaching - Develop hands-on experience, gain domain expertise, solve industry problems, Stand Up and Be Noticed, market your career using PULL instead of PUSH techniques!

Visit our Shopping Cart

Learning A Marketable Skill?

Hi,

Do you want to learn the C++ programming language or become a C/C++ computer programmer?

Have you ever asked this question? which programming language is the most complex and challenging?? and received the answer C++?

If you answered yes, you are not alone. About 13 years ago, I asked my mentors in computer programming which programming language is the hardest, toughest, most difficult to learn? and I got the same reply as you… C++.

I asked the question because I wanted to become a successful computer programmer.

So, I reasoned that if I could prove myself by conquering the hardest programming language, my success in computer programming would be guaranteed.

Do You Want To Learn The Hardest Programming Language?

Recently, a number of C/C+ software developers have been turning to me for help with their computer programmer careers.

You can do this by taking advantage of the developer coaching or training sessions available to computer programmers who enroll in the software developers boot camp.

So, what could go wrong with the career of a software developer who has conquered one of the meanest, hardest, most complex computer programming languages?

The real problem with learning C/C++ is not whether it leaves up to its reputation for being a tough guy, because it does!.

The challenge facing those who succeed in learning C/C++ is more subtle.

Continue reading and you will find out for yourself soon.

Is C/C++ Programming Good For Your Career?

A few months ago, I started mentoring a C/C++ computer programmer with real-world programming experience in C/C++, Microsoft Foundation Classes and Windows 32 API and a college degree.

He couldn’t get a computer programmer job, so he signed up for my coaching program to find out why he couldn’t get a job with C/C++ programming skills.

After he explained his situation to me, I presented him with a list of 3 hot programming technologies in high demand.

I told him that these programming languages were so hot that just having them on his resume would land him programming job offers, even though he had been out of work for 2 years!

Well, he acted on the information I gave him, took MASSIVE ACTION and in a FEW MONTHS learnt all he could about the 3 hot programming technologies!

Guess what? a few months after taking advantage of my software developer mentoring, he got the first programming job he interviewed for on the spot, after being out of work for two (2) years!

So, why couldn’t a C/C++ computer programmer with real world industry experience and a college degree get a programming job in the middle of a hi-tech boom?

WHY C++ PROGRAMMERS CAN’T GET JOBS

The simple reason why C++ programmers can’t get a job is that the C++ programming language is not suited for business or web applications development!

But, wait a minute, isn’t C/C++ also one of the fastest programming languages?

Yes C++ is one of the fastest programming languages. But the speed of C++ applies to the speed with which it executes on a computer and not to the speed with which you can code or develop software programs.

STOP! Think about what I just said. Don’t just read it, digest my last statement until you really comprehend it.

C/C++ is the wrong programming language for business or web programming because employers care more about the speed with which you code or develop software and care less about the speed at which your software program executes.

Why Employers Don’t Care About The Execution Speed of C++ Programs?

The reason is that the dramatic increases in computer processing speed and memory has made the personal computer faster and much more powerful.

So, the amount of processing power available on most personal computers makes the execution speed of any programming language sufficient for most business software development projects.

What Do Employers Care About?

Employers really want their software developers to code or write programs faster. And C/C++ fares badly at this, because it’s one of the meanest, hardest, most complex programming languages to either learn or develop real-world business applications with.

The problems of C/C++ does not stop with the difficulty of learning the language. It’s also harder, tougher and slower to develop web or business applications in.

This is the real reason why most employers will not hire C/C++ programmers for business or web application development.

Is C/C+ Dead?

Certainly not. C/C++ is best suited for software projects like writing operating systems, compilers, computer or video games, data mining applications, scientific applications or applications where the execution speed is critical.

Stop for a moment now and answer this question: do you really want to make money from programming computers quickly or easily?

If you answered yes, I recommend you go into an area of computer programming where the demand is hot and where there are lots and lots of jobs.

That area right now is in internet or web application programming which C++ is unfortunately not suited for.

Secondly, if you want to success in web or business applications development, learn a programming language which allows you to quickly create programs that meet business needs.

After 13 years, I realize that employers don’t care about the beauty of the C++ programming language.

Employers care about automating their business processes or making their businesses work better, quicker and faster.

Employers also want to hire programmers whose speed of development matches or outpaces their business operations.

The ugly truth is that C/C++ is not the right tool for achieving either of these results.

Dear friend, enroll in the Software Developers Boot Camp now and learn those programming languages that excel at creating business software applications easily and quickly and you will discover success in computer programming quickly and easily.

Finally, if you are a programmer needing help with career decisions, no matter how bad your situation is, sign-up for the Software Developers Boot Camp now and you will be personally coached on how to achieve success in your situation.

What Is The Toughest Challenge Facing Your Career?

Visit the Shopping Cart, Click Here

ABOUT TRAINING & COACHING COURSES

• Business Analyst Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Business Analyst Video Training


• SQL Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Hands On, SQL + RDBMS Video Training


• Software Developer Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Software Developer Video Training


• Data Analysts Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Hands On, Data Analyst Video Training


• Get Hired Fast - Online, Web Based, Resume + Job Search + Interview Video Training


• Become A Leader Coaching - Develop hands-on experience, gain domain expertise, solve industry problems, Stand Up and Be Noticed, market your career using PULL instead of PUSH techniques!

Visit our Shopping Cart