[gingerweasel]

Hi There,
I'm an IT Systems Administrator and have been for some time. Recently I became curious about programming and decided to take a closer look. I've spent a couple of hours on the web looking at the various languages I could learn and I have a basic understanding of what some of them could be used for. However I wanted to ask the experts.

I'm interested in developing applications for other system administrators (Windows), management utilities for Active Directory, Disk Management, Exchange etc...

From my understanding this would be best suited to C# or C++ ?

All comments welcome!

[Winstinology]

C#


I predict that this thread will be moved...

[gingerweasel]

Winstinology, on 28 Jul, 2009 - 01:09 PM, said:

I predict that this thread will be moved...

Appologies, I couldn't see another section which suited the query and I've only just spotted the notice that says no programming questions.

[supersloth]

man, you were way to quick with the apologies for me to mock you.

damnit.

*shuffles away*

[Gloin]

I would also say C#, although C++ will give you more respect.

[PsychoCoder]

Moved to Corner Cubical

[baavgai]

C#. The .NET framework has all the hooks you need for things like WMI and ADSI.

As a sysadmin, particularly if you're up to 2008 Server, you may wish to check out PowerShell scripts. It's a good tool for adhoc Active Directory searches and system inventory projects... I should probably post some snippets, but there's a lot out there already.

[SixOfEleven]

If you are going to be developing applications for Windows then .NET would be the way to go. I prefer C# over VB.NET. Any thing I can do in C# I could also do in VB.NET and the other way around. If I had to choose one over the other I would always go with C#.

[Raynes]

This is likely to be the only time you'll ever hear me say this, but I think I would recommend C#, if you only care about Windows. It has everything you need, extremely popular, extremely documented, and extremely simple to learn. [flamebait]I'd stay away from VB.NET /if possible/.[/flamebait]

[Jaakuuta]

why the dislike of vbnet so much?
if c# and vbnet can do the same things
then, aside from being based on one of the awesomest languages ever©, why do you like c# so much better?

[Locke]

Raynes, on 28 Jul, 2009 - 06:20 PM, said:

I'd stay away from VB.NET /if possible/.

Of course. You and every other ignorant person that craps on VB.NET on a daily basis. I can see staying away from VB6...but VB.NET is just as useful as C#.

But yeah, like previously stated, if you're staying on Windows, then C# is probably the way to go.

This post has been edited by Locke: 28 July 2009 - 07:51 PM

[Raynes]

/I/ dislike VB.NET, and /I/ encourage staying away from it. It's a personal opinion, and I explicitly stated that I would stay away from it. I don't appreciate being called ignorant because of a personal opinion. VB.NET is turing complete, whoopty motherfucking do. So is brainfuck. If you have C# as an option, it's probably a good idea to use it. If not, VB.NET is an alternative, as well as F# and other .NET languages. VB.NET is a definite huge improvement of VB6, where VB6 is worthless VB.NET is useful. I get plenty of shit for talking about Clojure, but I can't rag on another language every now and then? Shit.

This post has been edited by Raynes: 28 July 2009 - 08:52 PM

[raziel_]

Quote

If you are going to be developing applications for Windows then .NET would be the way to go. I prefer C# over VB.NET. Any thing I can do in C# I could also do in VB.NET and the other way around. If I had to choose one over the other I would always go with C#.

exuse me for the question SixOfEleven but Why C# if it is the same ?

[baavgai]

VB.NET is what happens when you take a simple procedural language ( VB ) and try to stuff it into a complex OO framework; it's a syntactic mess. Worse, it's an attempt to dupe a previously existing programming community that nothing has changed, which hinders usage. Microsoft, along with most other programmers, have always marginalized VB. With .NET, they made VB a punchline.

Microsoft kindly provides at least two code examples in their .NET docs, one for VB and one for C#. You'll notice that in every single example, C# is a shorter code block. That alone is enough to recommend it. C# / Java / C++ / C syntax is common in the programming world. Even PHP borrows from it. You'll find VB.NET is unique in it's design choices and that is not a good thing.

[gabehabe]

Just let VB die already. <cause type="frustration" who="bradders biscuits">Also Java. </cause>

This post has been edited by gabehabe: 29 July 2009 - 04:40 AM