C++/CLI vs. C#

We're thinking about writing a new application in .NET. I tend to believe that there's not much difference between any of the languages that Microsoft has created for .NET. VB is essentially C# with different keywords and punctuation, for example. You're certainly not going to change the design of your code because you had to write end instead of }, so, for a long time, it seemed irrelevant to discuss anything but C#.

Then Microsoft fixed their C++ implementation with C++/CLI. This is actually a different language from C#. It tries pretty hard to be C++ with access to the .NET runtime and some extra pointer syntax. In particular, you can still have deterministic destructors, free functions, and generic programming. You'll write a different program with C++/CLI than you would with C#, so it's worth thinking about which language you'd choose.

Deterministic Destructors

Actually, you just have destructors. There is a way to create the whole IDispose mess in a C++/CLI class, but it's largely irrelevant since the destructor actually works. This blog explains how to do it, if you're curious.

With real destructors, you can use the resource acquisition is initialization (RAII) idiom to make your code exception safe and easy to read at the same time. C# supports exceptions, but it relies on some quirky syntax to make them safe to use. If the programmer forgets to use the quirky syntax in a few places, then the code can do some really weird things. (No, there aren't any memory leaks. People like to claim that that's a serious problem with C++. Releasing resources is a more general problem that garbage collection does not solve. RAII solves the whole problem rather than a corner case.)

Anyway, I've gotten lazy as a C++ programmer, and I'm not sure I'm willing to go back to a world where exception safety is something you have to work hard to achieve, and releasing resources correctly is not something that the compiler does automatically for you.

To me, this is enough to make me not want to touch a complex application in C#, but let's keep going.

Free functions

C# does not have free functions. Every function is a member of a class. This sort of restriction really irritates programmers like me. Why does the compiler writer get to decide what the right solution to a problem is? Why can't I use the tool that's right for my problem?

In C#'s defense, I think they're using theory that it's harder to kill yourself with a blunt knife. There are a lot of bad programmers out there in the world. Some of them don't know when to use a free function and when to use a static member function. The designers of C# decided that in a fully OO application, there shouldn't be much need for free functions. In the majority of the cases, free functions are, therefore, a bad idea. If you don't let programmers use them at all, then programmers who don't want to worry about getting things right have one less decision to make. C#'s solution is, therefore, ideal for them.

It's annoying for me.

For some reason, I picked on free functions. I'm a fan of them, but there are other things missing from C#: multiple inheritance, a preprocessor, etc. It's all the same story.

Generic Programming

Some people are violently against this stuff, so I won't try to argue that it's got its place. I'd certainly miss it, but I doubt I'd use much of it here at PC-Doctor.

Refactoring Tools

C++ is a frighteningly complex language. Creating a C++ complier is an enormous amount of work. Generally, by the time companies are done with the C++ compiler, they've run out of time and budget.

Refactoring tools never seems to get put in the budget. Of course, changing the name of a type and having to figure out where all the instances that need to be changed are can be both difficult and occasionally impossible in C++.

C#, on the other hand, has some great refactoring tools. This makes some things a heck of a lot easier.

Conclusion

C++ and, by extension, C++/CLI has a lot of features. There are a lot of things in there that are dangerous to use in the wrong circumstances. However, if you spend all your time doing something, you want to have all the tools available to you. You're willing to learn the extra parts that aren't useful every day. I want to have enough tools to hurt myself.

The refactoring tools will be missed, and I hope that someone will get around to making some good ones for C++ eventually.

This originally appeared on PC-Doctor's blog.