A bit of a necro ( I missed this thread ), but if you are interested in programming for the Vita, I have put together a series of tutorials for getting started.

The SDK is actually pretty decent, although the documentation/examples can be a bit confusing at times ( thus my tutorials ), as I think they suffer a bit from English as a second language syndrome. Everything you need is there in the samples, it's just their code can be a bit.. difficult to digest.

That said, it is a very beginner friendly environment, and if you have basic C# skills, you actually can get a game up and running on an actual VIta device in only a few hours effort. The simulator is "OK" but needs some improvement, but you can easily get started without a Vita device.

I still wouldn't recommend using this as the way to learn to programming, but once you have the basics down, its a very interesting platform to look into. If you are interested in the platform itself, take a look here for an idea of what's included. The platform really should be getting more interest than it has been from Indies, the potential is certainly there.

C++ isn't that hard. You just have to remember if you wrote new you have to write delete somewhere. There also also some tricks which make code looks complicated, but you don't have to use them.

That's exactly the kind of dangerous advice that leads people into thinking that they should just learn C++ without worrying about the details. Oh, it's only complicated if you write it complicated.

No.

The whole danger of C++, the reason the experts are always telling people to start elsewhere, is not that you can write complicated code in C++. It's not even the memory management thing. It's that the whole language is afflicted by "here be dragons" quirks and corners that you can't see. I ran into a bizarre bug about two weeks ago and I'm still not sure whether I broke C++ rules or whether it was a compiler bug generating bad code. They key to understanding C++ is that, if it seems like a simple and easy to use environment, then you've probably made several major missteps. That you can't find. And THAT is why people need to go to C++ only after they've got a solid handle on the fundamentals.

And THAT is why people need to go to C++ only after they've got a solid handle on the fundamentals.

If at all. Thats the other misconception that needs to DIAF. C++ ins't the end game, or at least, doesn't have to be.

Too many people look at C#, Python, etc... as the languages they learn on their way to using C++.

While that's true, I think it's actually two different answers to two different questions - C/C++ (I believe) is the better path towards understanding the more nitty-gritty bits of computer science, whereas languages such as Java and C# are better for learning programming, as well as being a faster path towards a usable product for the beginning programmer.

If you think C/C++ is giving you useful information about how computers work, you're off the rails. If you think C/C++ is teaching you the first thing about computer science, you're on another planet entirely.

My question is, "how similar are they?". If I decided to put in some effort to learn C++, how easy would it be to transfer that knowledge to C#?

I know C# is more recent than C++. Is there possibility that all future consoles will rely "mostly" on C# instead of C++? Or will C# forever be something on the side that is microsoft oriented and not used too much outside of anything microsoft-related?

If you currently can't program, then yes, I would say that once you've learned one language, there's a lot that carries over to other languages. On the other hand if you want to learn one of these over the other, you might as well go direct to it, rather than learn one as a route to the other.

Are your objections to C# being for MS platforms down to a matter of principle? Or that you would rather develop for consoles? Or something else?

Note that C# seems to be surprisingly portable thanks to Mono. And someone's pointed out it is supported by the PS Vita anyway? As to what will be more supported in future, that seems hard to say, but I think both languages will have a large amount of support for some time.