How widespread is dotnet really?

[Steve]

Hi,

I'm a developer who, in the mid-nineties, switched from programming on
minicomputers to PCs.

Although an experienced C developer at the time, VB seemed the most
logical choice for many reasons, although I don't particularly care for
the Basic language.

So I now have a "bunch" of programs -- one quite large and complex -- in
VB6.

Since the announcement of dotnet, I personally have only purchased one
program that required a dotnet download.

So, from my narrow personal experience, it would seem as if programs are
mainly still being developed/maintained in C/C++, VB6, Delphi, etc.

I'm interested in others' experience both as programmers and consumers.

Ultimately, I need to decide when/what language to port to.

Thanks, Steve

 

[Mr. Arnold]

Hi,

I'm a developer who, in the mid-nineties, switched from programming on
minicomputers to PCs.

I switched from the mainframes to the PC world starting in 1987, and I
finally got off the mainframes in 1996.

Although an experienced C developer at the time, VB seemed the most
logical choice for many reasons, although I don't particularly care for
the Basic language.

Everything you can do VB you can do in C# for the most part. And everything
in VB you can do in C# you can do for the most part. However, there are some
differences between the two. But key is both solutions use the same
namespaces in the .Net Framework, so it's not too hard how to figure out how
the code will work in using the in a namespace, between the two languages.

So I now have a "bunch" of programs -- one quite large and complex -- in
VB6.

Since the announcement of dotnet, I personally have only purchased one
program that required a dotnet download.

..Net solutions are hot and heavy in the business/corporate environments with
Web N-tier technology. And other types of .Net solutions in a business
environment.

No, .NET has not taken off in the home consumer market with desktop
solutions, but I think it will do that at some point.

So, from my narrow personal experience, it would seem as if programs are
mainly still being developed/maintained in C/C++, VB6, Delphi, etc.

If you're looking at desktop solutions, yes that is the case at the moment,
but I think .Net is coming.

I'm interested in others' experience both as programmers and consumers.

From my experince as a .Net developer/contractor here in the US, .NET is
being widely used in the corporate or bussiness environment. Both VB and C#
being used in Internet, Intranet and desktop solutions.

Ultimately, I need to decide when/what language to port to.

VB.net is proprietary to MS and C#.net is not with C#.Net being controlled
by the ISO and ECMA standards committee as a standard to be ran across
platforms for what that's worth like the Mono project, look it up use
Google.

The .NET CLI is also controlled by the ISO and ECMA as a standard, which
other languages can use the .Net platform and are .Net compliant.

http://dotnetpowered.com/languages.aspx

There are 3rd party porting tools.

The link is for Vista, but there should be equivalent tools for whatever
platform you are using.

http://www.bestvistadownloads.com/

 

[S Moran]

i work for a Fortune 500 company in NYC. ALL of our dev teams code in .NET
almost exclusively, except for when it comes to maintaining legacy apps that
are still running on AS/400's. this goes for backend business apps AND user
apps via the desktop or web

 

[Guest]

There are many reasons to code in the languages you mentioned, as well as in
Java. I don't believe that the your experience with only having one
application which required the framework is an indicator that the majority
are using something other than .net. The installations that we write check
to see if the framework is there. If it is, the nothing further is needed,
but if not, then they silently install. Our experience is though that in our
business area, the customers already have the framework.