what does managed mean? whats the difference between it and unmanaged language/code? thanks for any help

"Managed" refers to the new Microsoft .NET framework. It''s a little bit more complex than my explanation, but it pretty much means "garbage collected". This means that you may use C++, and as long as you are using the .net framework, you may use the ''new'' keyword all you want and NEVER have to worry about releasing that memory later with ''delete''.

Visual C++, Visual Basic, and C# all take advantage of the ''managed'' framwork, with C# being the most natural choice.

It gets better...not only do you not have to worry about memory leaks anymore, but you also get access to a load of easy to use classes to make windows applications, perform internet programming, and a bunch of other things.

Managed code isnt appropriate for everything, but for GUI applications, it works very well. And you can even make games using Managed DirectX 9, which has about a 4% performance hit vs. regular DirectX....which is mostly because of how managed code executes.

I suggest you look for some info about .net and C# on Google for more info...there is plenty of it out there!

Happy Coding!

Here's something that should get you started. I highly recommend the first FAQ section on the list, as it covers many of the common questions asked about the framework, and about concepts such as assemblies and interoperability.

[edited by - Zipster on May 25, 2004 4:10:48 AM]