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What advantages can I get from learning C++ if I'm mainly a C# Programmer? [closed]

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Recently I've started to notice a lot of smirks and generally rude comments whenever I mention C#. Everyone I talk to either says learn Python or learn C++.
Python is a nice language, I get it. But I don't find much use for it right now (for my use cases), and C++ I heard is a faster language (not sure).
So my question is this, what advantage can I get from learning C++ (besides the knowledge and expansion of my horizons), when I mainly program in C#?

The biggest issues are as follows:
C++ is the de facto standard of system AND application programming for the past 20 years
C++ is portable and compilers exist for ~ 95% of all processor architectures.
C++ can enhance your .NET code, by that I mean PInvoke can be done to run optimized code written in C++ -OR- can be used to run code from 3rd parties, allowing you to write custom wrappers etc.
C++ is linux/mac/PSP/Cray II/Random OS from Thailand compliant, it has no issue compiling because it doesn't run through the .NET CLI (which I have to admit is a beautiful piece of art) C# is bound, for now, to Mono implementations and Windows through .NET.
As a professional .NET applications programmer, I love C#, I worship the ground that the architects walked on. But C++ is in my opinion, the most important language you can/will ever learn because it will open more career doors than any other language in the modern industry. If you know C# it will take you a matter of months to learn it. I reccommend Timothy D'Orazi's C++ book if you have an academic software engineering background.
Afterthought:
C++ is a tool, just like C# or a drill or a shotgun (arguably) fit the tool to the task, I'd rather die than write functional code in C++, likewise, I wouldn't do application development in F#, they're all fine langauges. Learn something that interests you! If you want to be a better programmer, learn C++, if you want to be a better application developer, it may be more to your advantage to learn new technologies within the framework you're already working in! You are a C# programmer, have you learned WPF? WCF? what about the features of C# 4.0? Have you mastered lambda functions? expression trees? There are so many directions you can go from here, C++ is just one of them. Ask yourself the following questions:
What can I learn that will add value to me?
What can I learn that will interest me as a developer?
What can I learn that will benefit me in my immediate position?
What can I learn that will help me get into the kind of career path that I want to be in?
You'll find that there will be many answers that overlap for these questions, take your time, find something that interests you and won't be a chore to learn, you'll thank yourself for it 3 months from now.

Short answer: Learning at least some C++ (and some assembly language too) makes you better at leveraging and, perhaps more importantly, debugging the software platform deep underneath your code. This is true regardless of the programming language or OS you're working in.
Long answer:
One of the differentiating factors, IMHO, between good developers and great developers is that the great ones know what's going on under the hood in a piece of software and are capable of quickly drilling down underneath layers of abstraction in the technology stack, since the toughest software problems are often caused by things way down below your code in the stack.
Therefore, I've always recommended that developers, at some point in their careers, spend at least some time learning two languages which are at the bottom of almost every software stack: C/C++ and x86 assembly language. That doesn't mean you need to become an expert in either, but having a working knowledge of things like pointers, registers, memory management, stacks and heaps, un-GC-ed string buffers, leaks, etc. is hugely useful when you need to reach down into the stack to diagnose a problem, to better understand odd behavior, or simply to make smarter decisions as you architect higher-level software, regardless of the language.
An analogy: I became a much better manual transmission driver once I took apart my motorcycle's engine and saw how the clutch worked. That didn't mean I needed to become a motorcycle mechanic, only that it helped my overall driving skills once what was happening inside my bike was not a mystery anymore.
Also, regardless of the language or framework you're working with, for projects that must call directly down into the underlying platform, C/C++ knowledge is very helpful and sometimes required.
Note that I'm deliberately not touching the more contentious question about whether you should be writing entire apps in C++ or not. Other answers have done a great job covering those arguments. Instead, I'm simply making the case that C++ skills will benefit you, regardless of whether you continue writing most of your code in C# (or Java or Python or Ruby or...)

It depends.
The thing I like about C++ is that in some ways, it is a more expressive and yes, more elegant, language than C#. It enables some really nice abstractions (such as generic programming or RAII) that just can't be duplicated in C#.
In those ways, it's an eye-opener. Of course, so are functional languages. So is Python. All of them are worth learning, even if you write all your code in C# now and forever.
Of course, C++ is also an overcomplicated mess, and a far more error-prone language than pretty much anything else. And if you don't know it really well, then it will explode in your face when you least expect it.
Of course, plenty of people will shout PERFORMANCE! when you ask why you should learn C++. I won't. Because in many common cases, C# is going to be as fast or faster as your C++ code. This old exchange between Raymond Chen and Rico Mariani illustrates the performance characteristics of both platforms pretty well.
C++ has the potential to be extremely fast. But it also has a lot of subtle performance pitfalls that mean that most of the time, unless you're some kind of omniscient code-god, your code is going to be less efficient than the equivalent C#.
If you have an interest in programming languages, C++ is a wonderful example of the theory of evolution. ;)
It hasn't grown according to some great predefined plan. It has always improved and adapted one step at a time, according to what would make the language better right now. As a result it is huge, bloated, overly complex, but it is also more expressive than something strictly designed according to a single person's vision, such as C#. C# is designed with an unhealthy obsession with OOP, because that was the cool thing when it was designed.
In C++, OOP sort of drifted out towards the periphery, not so much as a conscious design decision, but because better alternatives turned up.
It's a fun language. And I'd recommend learning it just for the sake of becoming a better programmer. But I'm not convinced that you'll need to actually use it. Of course it will make certain tasks easier (native interop, or programming small programs which for one reason or another can't assume that the .NET framework is installed), but for most cases, you probably won't need it.
That leaves the "become a better programmer" argument, and while that is a valid argument, it is also true for other languages. You should definitely also know a functional language. And Python, or a similar pragmatic, high-level "make it easy for the programmer" kind of language.

I have been C++ developers for last 10 years and last two years, I have been using java for new product development. I have also done some programming on C# just to learn it. Based on my experience I would say C++ is a challenging and high performance language which is good for computer science students to understand programming concept and algorithms. Other usage of C++ would be protocol implementation which doesn't change often E.g implementing SIP Proxy or HTTP Server..
For practice product development where requirements changes often, I would recommend any high level language where developers can focus on application logic instead of reinventing wheel. E.g Recently I started an open source project xcapserver which I was able to do quick prototype in two days using java technologies (Glassfish,REST, log4j, eXist db)but I wanted to lean boost libraries and again it's a protocol which is not expected to change often, so I decided to implement in C++. I spent 4 days just to get the logger working using BOOST::log and another 4 days to fix the thread deadlock issues with Berkeley DB XML.
Another aspect is product maintenance. I have spent days and night to fix memory leaks and corruption and learning curve for new developers is too high versus J2EE or .NET where it's easy to find developers and maintenance is much easier.
In sort, C++ is good programming language which I would recommend to all developers to learn but I don't see much use of it going forward as processors are becoming faster and cheaper so performance is not the reason.

There are reasons to use pretty much any language.
C and C++ have uses in that they are compiled into native code rather than running on a virtual machine. There is a speed advantage and it also means these programs can run without having a 50MB+ framework installed.
Pretty much all games (certainly first person shooters) are written in C or C++.
Is this applicable to you? No idea because I have no idea of what you're trying to achieve.
What will you learn from C or C++? Pointers, memory management and the like. It's quite a different world from more modern garbage collected languages like C#, Java or Python.

Learn C++ so that you can better appreciate C#.

Apart from what others have said:
People do like to see it on resume's.
Learning any language helps you translate that language into C# which makes you more valuable as a programmer.
Learning another language helps you to understand samples using that language, arguably allowing you to draw on a wider range of samples, books, examples, experts.
Wrappers! Learning C++ helps you wrap those pesky C++ dlls for consumption in C#!
That said, there are quite possibly other things you should be learning before C++ if you're a C# programmer who never learned C++ in the first place.

You'd get more utility out of learning a functional language like Clojure, Haskel (or maybe F# given you obviously feel comfortable with CLR). They have a different underlying programming model which will expand your horizons in ways that learning a new syntax will not.
In the other direction, learning C would actually be much more useful than learning C++. That will focus your learning on pointers, memory, and 'close to the metal' topics.

2015 Update
Learn Swift. It will teach you the same use of functional and generative patterns as modern C++ but without the baggage or as many gotchas. It's also semantically a significant overlap with F# so you get a chance to study functional programming. There's a vibrant functional community pushing the bounds of Swift.
Ironically, in my current day job on C# bindings for Realm, I'm still using my C++ skills alongside C# but not much has changed my attitude in the last 6 years.
Original
I speak as a C++ programmer for 15+ years who has spent the last year learning and using C# (and C++/CLI), on top of an ongoing fascination with languages and a broad range of studying other languages to improve my thinking.
I am very very impressed with C# as a language, especially with the improvements in C# 3.0.
I would take the contrary views:
Unless you want employment writing computer games, or relatively low-level components, forget about C++ as a language because there are enough skilled C++ programmers out there and the gaming industry generates a lot more (of presumably varying quality). It is not going to improve your career prospects.
Do invest some time into studying the interesting depths of C#, the implications of operator overloading, how to use unsafe code etc. Pick up a book like the excellent C# in a Nutshell and be able to go through and annotate all the content with deeper explanations of how that idiom might be used.
Learn a dynamic language like Ruby or Python, use it for some real-world tasks such as generating or mangling test files, so you appreciate the simpler language for manipulating files, structures and strings.
Learn F# or another function language and develop a few smirks of your own about the implications of functional languages for parallel processing and clouds :-) In a few years time (or earlier) this will yield huge career benefits when people are scrambling for cloud-savvy programmers. Remember, you haven't learned a new language until you can compare it to the old ones so you need to be able to pontificate about when and where to use F# (or Haskell) instead of C#.

In terms of performance, it is a lot faster. If you have any desire to do game programming or high-performance computing, C++ is a great language for that.
But, I would also say C++ is very difficult to learn. No garbage collector, compile errors that need to be deciphered, and the need for external libraries are all difficulties to overcome.

Regarding C/C++, here are a few things that come to mind out of my own experience.
Learning C/C++ can provide experience working more closely with detailed operating system features and with raw memory. For example, many Audio, Video, and Game applications require this level of access to perform at their best.
Knowing how to interop with components and libraries written in C/C++ is a handy skill. There are many useful libraries out there that still do not have adequate equivalents in C#. TSAPI (telephony), various file format libraries, and legacy components are much easier to work with in C# if you understand their construction in C/C++ and other languages.
If you are working with windows applications, having experience with Win32 through C/C++ allows you to understand how a number of other applications written in non-managed code work; even if you do not have the source code available to you. You can then use P/Invoke more effectively to deal with libraries that would ordinariliy be unavailable or too opaque to handle otherwise.
Many techniques, though potentially black-hat in nature, are tougher to accomplish with C#. Things like DLL substitution, re-writing function entry points, injecting code into other processes, and generating inline assembly code are easier to do with C/C++; though not impossible with C#.
Finally, fine tuned control over un-managed objects is something better suited to code written with C/C++. For example, things like overlapped I/O on windows, some socket library features (ex. UDP Multicast), and device control have more working C/C++ examples out there than C#. But, these are quite esoteric and usually not handled in C# applications anyways. Some of these are likely to have equivalents in future APIs or frameworks as well.
In summary, the main motivation I would suggest for learning C/C++ is to broaden your knowledge of other systems that are not accessible in C#. Learning Python would be a step in the other direction, where learning other styles and semantics of code construction is a more likely benefit. C/C++ code written by other people tends not to have more beneficial nor recognizable patterns like software written in Python, Ruby, or Lisp.

The best reasons for learning C++ for a C# developer is to learn new programming paradigms. C++ is more than just an "object oriented" language and hence offers a chance to learn new approaches to solving problems. With C# 3.0 and .NET 3.5, C++ doesn't affer as many unique paradigms, but if you are not using them, then effective C++ programming will force you to learn them.
In particular, C++ still offers a very powerful generic programming paradigm that is unmatched by C#. The STL forces you to use functional programming concepts that many C# developers avoid or don't use (LINQ extensions and lambda's for example).
I've also found that it strengthens a persons understanding and appreciation for lexical scope. Concepts such as RAII or C++ namespaces really push the need to manage scope very carefully... in C#, many of these concerns exist, but are less "in your face". Template metaprogramming is another unique concept that C++ offers that C# doesn't.

Learn C++ so that you can feel like blowing your brains out.

With every programming language you're able grow your vision of the landscape and apply lessons learned. Although I have never written a production C++ application, it was very educational for me to understand the system at that level. If you have the spare time, dive in! You may also want to explore unsafe C# code. It could help you understand many of the advanced capabilities of C++.

In order to respect the OP's wishes I won't say anything about how I think C++ can help a C# programmer think differently about code. ;-p
Seriously though, as a tool the main advantage of C++ is that it is multi-platform. Code written in C++ can be run on a huge variety of platforms.
On the other hand the big disadvantage of C++ compared to C# is that it takes a lot longer to write correct code.
While it is possible to write faster code in C++ in theory this assumes an unlimited amount of development time. In practice because I can write more sophisticated code more quickly in C#, I can spend the extra time optimizing the code.

It depends what programs you're working on. I've never used Python before, so I can't comment on that.
As for C++; most performance critical software is written in it due to its speed. You have more power over your hardware, but with that power comes responsibility and a steeper learning curve. It also doesn't have access to .NET; so you'll probably have to dig into Win32 programming for doing some of the tasks!
Examples of where C++ is used: Game development, aerospace, air traffic control systems.
Personally, I think that learning C/C++ makes you a better programmer overall, it teaches you many things; especially about performance and memory. And also well.. pretty much everything important is built in C++.

First off, It sounds like your interested in learning more. That is really the most important part of being a good programmer.
That said; Almost all big open source projects are written in C or C++, if you want to leverage or build on top of those you need to know the language. Not only is working with a large open source project look great on the resume, it also let's you examine some really good (and really bad) code. For me that alone has been a invaluable learning experience.

The primary reason to learn any new or different language is to learn a new and different approaches to solving problems in programming. C# and C++ certainly have some similarities. They also have some pretty substantial differences. At first, those differences will seem (as a few have mentioned) to be primarily with syntax. Further study, however, will reveal considerably greater differences that go well beyond simple syntax.
That means that if you decide to study C++, you need to plan on dedicating a fair amount of time and effort to it before you gain much. If you want something that's radically different from the get-go, you'd probably be better off with something else. My own advice for a completely different language would be Scheme -- basically Lisp with a good housecleaning.
There are lots of other functional languages, and some of them are pretty cool -- but Lisp has outlived a lot of would-be successors, and I think it'll outlive quite a few more. If I were a betting man, I'd bet on Lisp outliving F# by several decades...

What features should Java 7 onwards have to encourage switching from C#? [closed]

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C# has a good momentum at the moment. What are the features that you would need to have in order to switch (or return) to Java?
It would also be quite useful if people posted workarounds for these for the current Java versions, e.g. Nullables being wrapped around custom classes, to make this a much more interesting wiki.

As a .NET/C# developer here are the missing features that annoy me. This list in no particular order - just as thoughts come to mind:
The Java library is too small. For common things I have to choose between 5 competing open source products because the base library is lacking in so many ways.
This is an Object Oriented programming language right? Why in the heck do primitive types not inherit from "object"?
Pointers
Lambdas
Closures
Partial Classes and to a lesser extent partial Methods
Real support for Generics
Using statements and Dispose - this was a real WTF for me. You really have to explicitly close connections in try/catch blocks. Poor Java guys!
Yield return would be nice
Unsigned integers - again WTF? I have to use number types larger than I need for what purpose again?
In Java you can return from final blocks of try/catch. A co-worker confused the hell out of me for hours by introducing a bug this way. This behavior should be prohibited as in C#.
I rarely have to use Java and when I do, I have all sorts of WTF moments.
Edit: I Removed for-each comment based on the fact it is no longer a missing Java feature since 1.5.

In my experience, Java vs. .Net is more of a business decision than a technical one. Shops with MS experience trend towards .Net and shops with Java experience trend towards Java & OSS. I've seen little evidence of people switching based upon language features. On the other hand, I've seen shops heavily tilt towards one platform b/c of one or two key employees they wanted to hire being knowledgeable in that area.

in no particular order:
function pointers (delegates); the whole passing interfaces around thing is stupid
real generics; what's the point of having type safe generics if the compiler can't even hold the meta data through a unit's compilation?
ui speed; all the self-drawing ui libraries are very slow compared to native controls wrapped in "managed" libraries, not to mention that microsoft's self-drawn ui is hardware accelerated through direct3d
an yield return construct; c# is so user friendly in this it's crazy
operator overloading
linq; just cuz its so addicting
properties; more synctatic sugar you get addicted to
better interop with native code; c#'s p/invoke and native com support makes interop so easy compared to jni -.-
first class value types; this goes hand in hand with real generics, having generic lists that never box/unbox in c# is part of why c# is faster than java.
and i'd say this is the most important one:
a responsive, informative debugger; nothing can even come close to visual studio right now

Just going off the cuff, I think the biggest thing Java 7 needs that everyone is lamenting the lack of is closures.

I'm a C# programmer and about one year ago I had to participate in the development of an application in Java. What I missed the most was:
Visual Studio (Eclipse is nice, but
VS is VS, especially Team Edition)
Comparing strings with ==
Properties
Basic types as first-class objects
(e.g. not "int" type vs "Integer"
class)
Anonymous methods (a workaround can
be made by using anonymous classes
but it is not the same)
LINQ
And there was one single Java feature that I missed when I went back to C#: explicit exception declaration in method signatures.
DISCLAIMER: I am speaking about a somewhat old project, I don't know if some of these features are present in current versions of Java.

Less heinous XML parsing and manipulation tools. Doing anything with XML in Java sucks.

I'll also give one answer the other way around. C# needs an enumeration implementation like Java has. Java's enumerations rock!
Let me add anonymous overrides to this list also. Sorry to go off topic, but C# needs the ability to anonymously override methods. I have been switching back and forth between Java and C#, and I have to say for unit testing legacy code, there is nothing better than anonymous class overriding.

I would need function pointers of some sort. The ability to use delegates in C# is so useful. There are so many times in Java where I want to create a map of delegates or function pointers as the solution, but I can't. I know you can simulate a similar thing in Java, but having the abstraction as part of the language is a huge plus!

Momentum. I have done a lot of development on both platforms. I'm enjoying the .NET side more because of the way the C# language is evolving. Java's evolution seems to be more a reaction to C# than an actual vision. So I think the best thing for Java to do is ignore .NET and create something new of its own.

Another one I would like is some equivalent to LINQ. I noticed how much I actually depend on the ability to use LINQ when I tried to do a top coder competition and realized they only support .NET 2.0. Once you get used to using LINQ to solve problem and make it part of your regular programming vocabulary it is very difficult to not see problems in that light. It is akin to using generics and then not being able to use generic.

I think, choice between Java and C# is not a question of language features, but a question of platform and ecosystem choice.
So, I doubt that any new syntactic sugar in Java or C# can lead to a significant amount of switchers between the platforms.
After all, JVM world has Scala and many language-sensitive developers are using it in some way.

I think, you should consider swithcing this holywar from "Java vs C#" to "JVM vs CLR", because JVM is (in the last years — mostly) not only Java, but also Scala, Groovy, Clojure, JRuby, Jython, and dozen of JVM-languages.

Properties!
Anonymous objects are nice too

Continuations, like Scala (on top of the rest) would be good too, for agents development.

Support to run over CLR (and vice versa perhaps for JVM) without IKVM and other such layers.

Let's be clear that we need to distinguish between Java and the JVM. I actually switched from C# to Java, but I admit it was not because of Java's amazing language features! In my very humble opinion, C# is the better language, and CLR is the perhaps a more elegant VM. However, even with Mono, you're not writing applications that run everywhere!
I think the greatest argument for Java is the amazing community it has. This is where the cutting edge technology is being developed, not at Sun (now Oracle). The Java community has consistently been the leader in developing Enterprise technologies. For instance, how long did it take Microsoft to provide a DI Framework? Where's AOP in .NET? When I start a .NET project, my foundation is Spring.NET, a Java port. When I need ORM, it's NHibernate. Need a testing framework? NUnit. I realize there are other OSS projects for the .NET platform, but their numbers and support from Microsoft are laughable compared to the Java community.

on the other side, has .net got enterprise open projects like Terracotta (semi commerical), Infinispan, Compass ? no. ncache (commerical), lucene.net are far behind them. Especially Terracotta is unique, it can improve some of your app x100, it's simply perfect and free (partitioning is commerical). If we implement a high load app in both .net with anything and java with terracotta + hibernate + terracotta-hibernate-integration, java app will probably far more performant than .net one. Ther're some ports to .net like nhibernate, log4net, lucene.net, but all of them are trying to catch java versions. And entity framework is a disaster, they have to start with nhibernate as the base or get some lessons from them.
.net is only working on windows (mono is far from enterprise, there isn't any enterprises using it), how much money does myspace.com spent for their 4000 windows web server licences ? 1 million ?
You can't install a simple plugin to VS (and can't do some other things) if don't buy professional edition,
Some windows instance types in amazon web services are nearly x2 price of the linux ones.
if you look at ohloh.net open source java project counts (with language comparison tools), you'll see that java has x5 more volume than c#.
also Java has %20 share on worldwide while c# has %4.x (source:tiobe.com)
Look at the top web sites; only microsoft and myspace are using .net. google, amazon, ebay, linkedin, alibaba, twitter (switched to scala from rails)... many of them are using java and many others are using php, ruby (facebook, yahoo,..)
As a language Java is far behind c#, but Scala (runs on jvm) is as good as c# and it's performance is nearly same as java and also it can use all jdk and other java code as his library.
I'm not saying java is better, but I'm saying java is as valuable as .net, too.

A native 'decimal' type for Java replacing the BigDecimal class would be nice. But Java thread-safe collections are nice.
Perhaps the question is not so much what Java 7 needs to persuade developers to use it, but more a case of what makes developers want to move from Enterprise/server-side java language to a different C# desktop Windows-only oriented world?
For most developers, the language isn't difficult to pick up be it Java or C#. I develop in Java, but Linq didn't take long to understand and use.
I think the choice of Java or C# depends on what motivates you personally -perhaps money? in which case either language will do whether they have certain features or not.
Ste

They should start by fixing the Calendar/Date related classes, even that seems too much to ask.

A simple way to map values in your model to the UI (like bind in Java/FX)

I think it depends on bussiness decisions, not the languages themselves.
But I really really really love C# lambdas and curry :D :D
http://mikeomatic.net/?p=82

a map({codeblock}) which runs over anything iterable would be nice. And filter too. And being able to return multiple values easily from a method.
(a,b,c) = getThreeValues();
(would assign the individual variables a, b and c).
Actually I just think they should have Haskell as a supported scripting language on the JVM :D

linq, lambda, anonymous types

I don't see any point in "luring" anyone anywhere. They solve different problems and you should use whichever one suits you.
Java has less "Language" and less structures to trip up new people, it's platform independent and it doesn't change too fast allowing old code to stick around for a LONG time (Good for some large companies).
C# has tight desktop integration and a slew of nice features that make it more fun to program. It has .net integration. It has pointers, closures, etc which make it harder for n00bs (a valid language target, hence Basic) but more fun for experienced programmers--I haven't convinced myself that these features make you more productive, but in some situations they can make your code a lot nicer! Also if you need pointers, you need pointers.
I don't see a whole lot of overlap in target audiences. Why change a language to attract programmers when it's healthier for the entire industry to have two healthy languages each targeted at solving different problems attracting different developers?

C# popularity industry-wide or is SO atypical? [closed]

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I feel I'm a well rounded programmer, I'm comfortable in C# and java (several large projects with both) but I tend to use C++ for most applications when I have a choice. (and sometimes R,Python, or Perl as appropriate..)
But I am astounded to see the popularity of C# here on SO. There are 18500 C# topics, more than C, C++, and java combined. I've never felt C# as having such an impact in the companies I've worked with but the SO popularity of C# is undeniable.
My question:
Why is C# so popular on Stack Overflow? My question is not so much a SO question as a desire to understand C#'s current acceptance/growth compared to C++ and java.
Possible explanations for the popularity:
C# is truly that popular and accepted in industry, it's everywhere!
SO is not typical, it seems to have attracted a disproportionate number of C# users
C# has more questions/confusions that tend to need community help to solve
Microsoft (maybe on its forums?) encourages people to use SO for questions
The first explanation is likely the reason, but I just haven't felt that popularity in the real world!
What's your reason you discuss C# topics here?

I think the founders of SO are .Net gurus. Most of the people who follow their blogs found out about the site, and started coming here. The original user base was probably pretty .Net/C# focused.
I also think that C# is the preferred language in .Net with it's interop and ability to use old C and C++ code. Those familiar with C, C++, and Java can easily get a useful application built and working in C#, and be pretty certain it will run on any system with the proper .Net framework installed.
And, C# sounds cool.

I wrote about the popularity of C# on another thread, but to discuss why it's popular on SO, I'd say others have the right of it. C# is popular here because most of the people who first came to SO did so following Jeff Attwood's blog. That's certainly how I came here.
The thing is, SO really is language neutral, even if it's written in C#. Both Jeff and Joel have programmed in other languages and are hardly bigots when it comes to language; they just chose C# because it really is an amazing language to program in.
Comparing C# to Java and C++, the growth has been astounding. C# when it was first introduced was basically Java with a better GUI library (Win.Forms beats the ever-lovin' snot out of Swing any day, IMO, and WPF is heads-and-shoulders above both) and a few extra concepts, the biggest of which was delegates and properties as first-class citizens. Since then it's grown meteorically, constantly adding newer and better things. The entire concept of LINQ has drastically changed the way I approach iterations; couple that with WCF for contract-based inter-process/computer communications and WPF for a truly amazing way to build GUIs, and you've got a rock-solid language and library.
Hell, WCF alone makes .NET the correct enterprise/SOA choice.
By contrast, Java hasn't released a new version in, what, 5 years?
C# is innovating. Java is stagnating. C++ is... well let's call it "stable", shall we? The newest version, which is dubbed "C++0x" will soon need to be called "C++1x". The features that are planned require so many changes to the runtime that you're almost going to have Java or C# when you're done anyway so why bother?
Finally, to answer your last question, I come here to answer questions about any topic. I mostly prefer to deal with abstract problems rather than language-specific issues, but I'm always willing to help regardless of language. Just because I love C# doesn't mean it's all I know. :)

I think it's a combination of reasons 2 & 3. From what I've seen, C# is not as popular as Java, and it's probably not as popular as C++.
From where I live, most people use Java, followed by CPP, followed by C#.

Is atypical.
C# is very popular but StackOverFlow is by no means a reflect of the industry-wide.
Dup: Why is there such a large percentage of C# questions?
Related: Why does Ruby seem to have fewer projects than other programming languages?

I've mostly avoided C#, because (a) I've got a silly prejudice about that glandular freak of a program loader masquerading as an operating system — I just don't do Windows, and (b) because it's so much like Java that I have trouble keeping them apart in my head.
That said, there's a lot of C# being done, and if I weren't an old crank it'd probably be a good language.
The thing is that C++ is riding without training wheels. This makes it much better for some things — I helped build the AS/400 operating system in C++, bare metal up — but not as good for the sort of application programming most people do most of the time.

I guess that is partly due to people knowing of the site thru Jeff Atwood's blog, and Joel Spolsky's website.
Although their writings are not technology specific, it has a slant towards MS stack and hence the site is popular among developers working on MS suite of tools/languages.
Once the site becomes more popular and gets ranked high in google for questions on other tools, it will have more questions on those topic as well.

It really just depends if you plan on working with windows. If you like Linux or mac better then you probably want to use another language (although you could use Mono.NET). I just use C# because of 3 main reasons:
Easy to learn
Easy to use
Easy to deploy
But if you like a different language better then use it. Right now I'm learning C so that I can help contribute to some of my favourite open source linux apps.

C++ or Python for C# programmer? [closed]

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I am a corporate C# programmer. I found some time to invest into myself and stumbed upon a dilemma. Where to go from now? C#/.NET is easy to learn, develop for, etc. In future I would want to apply to Microsoft or Google, and want to invest spare time wisely, so what I will learn will flourish in future.
So: Python or C++ for a C# programmer? I am a little scared of C++ because developing anything in it takes ages. Python is easy, but I take it as a child-play language, which still need lots of patching to be some mature development tool/language.
Any C# developers having same dilemma?

I Am a little scared of C++ because developing anything in it takes ages.
I'm not sure how you can say that when you say yourself that you have no experience in the language. C++ is a good tool for some things, Python is good for other things. What you want to do should be driving this decision, not the technology in and of itself.
C# programmer or not, I would assume that you can pick up any language, but a language is just a tool, so your question is difficult to answer.

Python may be easier to get started with, but a dynamically typed scripting language is a very different language from C# or C++. You will learn more about programming learning it than you will by hopping to a close cousin of a language you already know. Really, solid familiarity with at least one scripting language (Python, Perl and Ruby are the favorites) should be a requirement for all programmers.

If you want to apply to Google then Python might be the one to go for, surely MS would like the C# already. If nothing else the competition would not be as fierce as there are much more folk out there with multi years of C++ experience. Also Python gives you a broader language skill and would be a good path to more languages and scripting.
But as said and will be said again, choose your tool wisely and see whether it's a nail or a screw you're trying to secure.

C# is a little closer to Java and C++ than it is to Python, so learn Python first out of the two.
However, my advice would be:
Stick with your current language and learn more techniques, such as a wider range of algorithms, functional programming, design by contract, unit testing, OOAD, etc.
learn C (focus on figuring out pointers, multi-dimensional arrays, data structures like linked lists, and resource management like memory allocation/deallocation, file handles, etc)
learn Assembly (on a modern platform with a flat memory architecture, but doing low-level stuff like talking to hardware or drawing on a canvas)
learn Python or Ruby. Chances are, you'll stick with one of these for a while, knowing all of the above, unless some hot new language has come along by then.

Why not learn some of each. Studying a language for a week or so won't make you an expert, but it will answer a lot of questions in your head and plant a seed for the future.
It's important to not just read through exercises. Find some simple problems that can be programmed in a page or two at most and solve them with each language. That will help you to learn the strengths and weaknesses in the context of the way you think and how you solve problems.

C++ is usually used when speed, and low-level OS access is involved.
It's a good skill to have if you want to expand.
Python allows you to do thing quickly, and it's quite easy to learn, and provides more power than you'd expect from a scripting language, and probably one of the fastest ones out there.
C++ isn't exactly slow to develop, if you've got an IDE, it's not hard to write per-se, but the syntax is going to get you.

If you want to apply to Google and/ or Microsoft then I'd say that of the two you need both!
Given more choice, probably C++ and one other language - either dynamic, functional, or both (Scala might be a good choice too).
It's not necessarily about whether you'd use the languages themselves but more about the different approaches they require and encourage.
If you continue to be "scared" by C++ you're probably going to struggle applying as a dev at either of those organisations - unless you are highly specialised elsewhere.

I think you just asked wrong question. It is not about the tool itself. It should be about what kind of software do you really find enjoying to create. C++ is used in creating different types of applications that are written in C# or Python. Please mind, that C# or .NET itself is not easy to learn. It may be quite easy to develop something that works somehow, but if you just delve into the details...
Anyway, my point is: if you're interested in developing web solutions: go for Python. There is a lot of hype about Python at the moment, and even Microsoft realized the power of this language (you may use your knowledge of .NET and Python programming using IronPython).
C++ is at the moment used in some specific areas. Business apps are written mostly in Java or .NET, and C++ is still great for more low level programming, in areas where performance is the crucial thing (and I mean 'performance' as performance of language/platform itself). The good example is game industry: Java and C# are definitely easier to learn than C++, but... how many 'big games' have been created entirely in C#/Java?
I have another advice for you: if you want to work for Microsoft or Google, do not focus on language itselft. It is NOT the most important thing. Focus on problem solving, algorithms and other stuff (Stevie Yegge's post about how to prepare for an interview at Google).
Oh, and of course as a fan of C++ (and C# too) I must admit that it is not true, that developing anything in C++ takes ages. You probably think of C++ as of "C with clasees" - take a look at STL, templates, advanced templates, Boost... Somehow all those people working in games industry manage to create better and better games in not so looooong time that takes others to create 'boring and easy' business app in Java/C#.

You might be interested in looking at Windows Powershell. It's the latest scripting technology from Microsoft, built on .NET, and can be extended via C#.
Granted, it's not as portable as C++ or Python, but it would leverage your C#/.NET experience more readily. Otherwise, I would suggest C++ (and possibly C). Microsoft builds a lot more of its products with C/C++ than with Python.

As someone familiar with C# and .NET you should consider IronPython. Python for .NET. This would be a good way to leverage what you know and learn a new dynamic language at the same time.

Why would you want to use C# if its slower than C++? [closed]

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I'm looking for a new language to learn after C++ and Java. I was going to try C#, but a bunch of people say its really slow because its a high level language. So why would anybody use C#? Isn't C++ much faster? Does it make development easier, but just have a slower final product?
Also, what can C# be used for? You use it with a lot of .NET stuff on windows, and with ASP.NET, but what are other situations where one would use C#? Will there be a lot of job opportunities for it?

Who exactly is this "bunch of people"? What are they comparing it against?
For the vast majority of things, C++ is not "much faster" than C#. It certainly has benefits in various situations, particularly where you want more deterministic memory handling, but in my experience the bottleneck in most applications isn't in places where C++ would help. As spoulson says, a lot of performance is in the design instead of the exact implementation - and there, it helps to be able to try different designs easily.
Why would we use C# when it's a bit slower than C++? Because it's generally reckoned (i.e. some disagree :) to be a lot easier to develop in without shooting yourself in the foot.
As for what C# can be used for... what do you want to use it for? Unless you want to develop drivers and kernels, it may well be fine for you. (Even OS development has some folks using C#...)
Job opportunities? Loads.
Downsides? Well, .NET itself is only available on Microsoft platforms. There's Mono, but it doesn't have quite the same degree of portability as Java (no doubt another "slow" language according to the same bunch of people).

Code written in assembly can be blazingly fast. Why not just write in assembly?
Don't believe everything you hear. C# has been plenty fast for all my projects. Typically, performance is more a factor of design than raw platform performance.

I'd have to say the people you were talking to simply don't know what they're talking about. Plain and simple.
Many enterprise level applications are built on top of C# and other .Net languages. There is nothing inherently slow about them. Yes the tend to have slower startup times but that's pretty much where it ends.
I noticed you mentioned Java in the list of languages. If you're comfortable with the speed of Java, C# will not present any issues. Generally speaking C# performs at least as well as Java on many different types of bench marks.

My last company was founded by 5 C++ veterans with 15+ years experience each. They spent over a month building a certain Windows service. One of them found and dabbled in C#. Within a week he'd gotten further than the collective had in their month. Shortly after, they all switched to C#.
Why C# if it may perform slower: what price do you put on that degree of rapid development?

Why should it be slow ?
Indeed, C# is compiled to 'Intermediate Language', which is JIT'ed at runtime, but this can give you a performance advantage, since the runtime can generate the most optimized for the platform the code is running on ...
Depending on the application that you want to write, the 'speed' of the language will have a minor impact.
The performance of your application will mostly be determined by the way you design your application, if you make good uses of the tools / technologies you use , etc ...
Sure, C# is not a silver bullet, and there are projects where you shouldn't use it, simply because it is not the right tool for the job, but it will do just fine for most of the business / enterprise app's.

I haven't found many instances where C# isn't a good choice of languages, and .Net (or Mono) isn't a decent platform. Notable exceptions being kernel level development, or drivers. There are plenty of areas where low level, and raw performance is needed. For most, if no all business, or Enterprise applications C# is one of the better choices for development. It's well supported, works with many other systems, libraries, communications channels and components already available not to mention being a fairly nice language (esp. 3.5) to work with.
ASP.Net wasn't a bad platform, I generally find the object/control stack to be one of the short comings for complex interactions. I think ASP.Net MVC fits better for more scalable web based applications. Just the same, it's better than many other systems I've worked with in the past.
In terms of service layers, and even GUI development it's pretty nice. I've got a lot more experience in web based applications, and service/communications/business layers than with desktop GUI applications, so can't comment much there. I feel a lot of GUI development is more about the IDE/Toolkit, than the particular language.
As to slow, you specifically list Java, in most instances, C#/.Net is as fast or faster than Java. IMHO development specifically goes smoother with C# (Visual Studio) over Java (Eclipse). For web-based apps, I like ASP.Net MVC (and even ASP.Net) over Swing. That's just me though.

The people you talked to don't know what they are talking about. C# is a very similar language to Java, all told; it has most of the same benefits and drawbacks. The way it all works is pretty similar (Java/C# is compiled into an intermediate language/bytecode that is interpreted or JIT compiled to native code, with various similar optimizations that you don't need to worry about as a programmer). It's used in a lot of the same situations as Java, and is really aimed for the same market. It's moving a lot faster and bringing in a lot of innovation as a language, but it's (in practice) pretty much Windows-only, if that's a concern of yours. The job market is similar. Both are very popular languages.
As for a language to learn, I would suggest something DIFFERENT. You say you know C++ and Java; C# shouldn't be hard to pick up. Potential employers will know this. Try Scala or Python. Both will give you some new perspectives on things (C# not so much), and make you a better programmer by teaching you new ways to think, rather than just adding another tool to your box.

C# is not always slower - in many cases, it can perform just as well as any language you listed. Usually the algorithm has more to do with the speed than the choice of language.
However, C# is very expressive, and has a great base class library to work with, and super-fast compilation. This means that it's very easy to work with, and can allow you to be much more productive than many other languages, especially C++. For example, I just had a small project that I would have budgeted 1 man-week for in C++, and we finished it up in less than a day in C#, mainly because the base class libraries simplified so many of the tasks.

one big reason to use C# over C++.........look at all those buffer overflow problems that C++ has where people take over your machine because they inject executable code in your strings
or memory leaks....garbage collector is quite handy IMHO

Even if C++ is faster to run, the difference isn't big on today's computers. That's why on mobile devices where cpu and memory are rather limited, C/C++ is still widely used.
But think about development times instead. If it takes 2 months using C++ and 1 month using C#, which would you go for? And when big modifications/refactoring need to be done, a higher level language makes it significantly faster and easier!

I Would definitely use C#. It is actually average speed, and if you liked java, it's almost exactly the same, as they are both based off C++.