C# tutorial : What is C# language / PDF

C# tutorial : What is C#  language / PDF

During the development of the .NET Framework, the class libraries were originally written using a managed code compiler system called Simple Managed C (SMC). In January 1999, Anders Hejlsberg formed a team to build a new language at the time called Cool, which stood for "C-like Object Oriented Language". Microsoft had considered keeping the name "Cool" as the final name of the language, but chose not to do so for trademark reasons. By the time the .NET project was publicly announced at the July 2000 Professional Developers Conference, the language had been renamed C#, and the class libraries and ASP.NET runtime had been ported to C#.

C#'s principal designer and lead architect at Microsoft is Anders Hejlsberg, who was previously involved with the design of Turbo Pascal, Embarcadero Delphi (formerly CodeGear Delphi and Borland Delphi), and Visual J++. In interviews and technical papers he has stated that flaws in most major programming languages (e.g. C++, Java, Delphi, and Smalltalk) drove the fundamentals of the Common Language Runtime (CLR), which, in turn, drove the design of the C# language itself.

James Gosling, who created the Java programming language in 1994, and Bill Joy, a co-founder of Sun Microsystems, the originator of Java, called C# an "imitation" of Java; Gosling further claimed that "[C# is] sort of Java with reliability, productivity and security deleted." Klaus Kreft and Angelika Langer (authors of a C++ streams book) stated in a blog post that "Java and C# are almost identical programming languages. Boring repetition that lacks innovation," "Hardly anybody will claim that Java or C# are revolutionary programming languages that changed the way we write programs," and "C# borrowed a lot from Java - and vice versa. Now that C# supports boxing and unboxing, we'll have a very similar feature in Java." Anders Hejlsberg has argued that C# is "not a Java clone" and is "much closer to C++" in its design.

C# used to have a mascot called Andy (named after Anders Hejlsberg). It was retired on 29 Jan 2004.

A Brief History of C#

C# was designed for developing components in a fully object-oriented manner as part of the Microsoft .NET initiative. C# debuted in the year 2000 at the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) where Microsoft founder Bill Gates was the keynote speaker. At the same time, Visual Studio .NET was announced.

The primary architects of C# were Peter Golde, Eric Gunnerson, Anders Hejlsberg, Peter Sollichy, and Scott Wiltamuth. Of these, the principal designer of the the C# language was Anders Hejlsberg, a lead architect at Microsoft. Previously, he was a framework designer with experience with Visual J++ (Microsoft's old version of the Java language), Delphi, and Turbo Pascal.

Both C# and the Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) have been submitted to international standards organizations European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA) and International Organization for Standardization (ISO) / International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).

The Java Connection

You will find that many C# books and sources ignore or minimize the role of the Java language in the development of C# and .NET, as if it were all Microsoft's original idea. This view is prevalent in exclusively Microsoft shops. However, the fact is that Microsoft was a latecomer to Internet development and the oft cited pedigree of C# from C and C++ applies equally well to the Java language, which preceded C# by some five years. Microsoft and Sun Microsystems have a long history of legal struggle over control of the Java language, a battle which Sun finally won. Prevented from adapting the Java language to the Windows platform, Microsoft decided to go its own way using its own version of the Java system—namely C# and .NET. The influence of the Java language on C# and other languages takes nothing away from C#, which in some ways improves upon its ancestor.

What is C# anyway?

C# (pronounced "C Sharp") is an object-oriented programming language developed by Microsoft Corporation as part of their .NET initiative in response to the success of Sun Microsystems' Java programming language. C# source code—as well as those of other .NET languages—is compiled into an intermediate byte code called Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL).

Primarily, C# is a hybrid of the C, C++, and Java programming languages with some features of Microsoft Visual Basic thrown into the mix. Like its Java ancestor, C# features automatic garbage collection (GC), scalability, simplified type declarations, type safety, and versioning support plus a few new features for Microsoft COM+ and Web services development.

Hewlett-Packard, Intel, and Microsoft submitted the Microsoft C# Specification to both European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA) and the International Standards Organization (ISO). In time, it was approved as a standard by ECMA and called the Standard ECMA-334 C# Language Specification. The C# language was architected by Anders Hejlsberg—a Delphi designer—, Scott Wiltamuth, and Peter Golde.

C# tutorial : What is C#  language / PDF