I was incredibly skeptical about C# at first, for quite awhile. However, as time passed and I began to learn about the language, I started to see that it really is a better Java. They didn''t discard everything possible from C++, for example. Like operator overloading -- In Java, they basically say operator overloading is evil and you shouldn''t be able to do it, but then they include operator + and += in the String class, so obviously someone didn''t think it was so bad. Yes, you shouldn''t use it everywhere, but occasionally it comes in real handy. And C++ operator overloading is incredibly complex to get right -- I spend a whole chapter on it in "Thinking in C++" -- but a lot of that comes from the memory-management issues. In C# (and in Java, if they would have thought about it) operator overloading is much simpler to use, and far less dangerous.

Another example is C#''s use of Run-time type identification (RTTI). C++ effectively considers RTTI a dangerous thing to be avoided. Java makes significant use of RTTI/Reflection, and C# seems to positively revel in it, and you can see the Delphi roots of what Anders did in C#. The realization that it''s very helpful to investigate and manipulate types at run-time is one of the things that makes the IDEs so powerful. And the idea of attributes is very important. It took me awhile to understand these, but attributes have concepts in common with both aspects and metaclasses, and the root of all these ideas is an important addition to the way we think about programming.

Of course, the big problem with C# is that it is dedicated to a single platform. Yes, the Mono project is trying to port C#/.NET to Linux but I have my suspicions. Somewhere in there we will run across copyrighted APIs that can''t be re-implemented for Linux, and that''s where things will come to a halt. Sure, you can have the general stuff, but you won''t be able to write full cross-platform programs. I can''t see Microsoft giving away any strategic advantages, regardless of how badly they want to lure people back from Java.

One very good effect that C# has had is in providing competition for Java. JDK 1.5 already has a number of features that have clearly been inspired directly by C#. I''m very glad to see this, because it had begun to feel to me like the Java designers had lost the feeling that they had to serve my needs. With C#, they seem to be paying attention again.

At this point I''d have to say the primary strength of C++ is performance. That''s the only compelling reason to use it at this point, because the downsides are many -- the excessive complexity of the language and lack of garbage collection are the two biggest time-wasters. I still enjoy C++ as an intellectual puzzle; I keep learning from it. But I would be very reluctant to use it exclusively for a significant project, unless there was a constraint that required it.