With highly expressive syntax that is easy to read, write, and maintain, dynamic programming languages like Python and Ruby are extremely conducive to rapid development. Microsoft and Sun Microsystems have observed growing interest in dynamic programming, and plan to integrate more extensive support for dynamic language features in their respective managed language platforms. Elsewhere, check PHP for .NET.
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Member since:2005-07-06
Member since:2005-07-12
"As a side note; the new Microsoft Office 2007 uses Winforms for its user interface front end; so even now there are applications that are exploiting the power of managed code without any noticeable affect on performance."
It's about time MS eats it's own .Net dog food. It's been, what, six years since the inception of .Net?
True, VS started using .Net 2/3 years ago. But it's easier to introduce a VM based app to developers, who understand and appreciate the cost/benefit analysis of VMs, and are more willing/patient to put up with slower start up times and more memory consumption, then it is to end users, who want stuff to just work, and not have their system slowed down.
It's the same with Java/Swing/SWT. There are lot's of excellent Swing or SWT based IDEs, like Netbeans, Eclipse, JBuilder, JetBrains, jEdit, etc, but not many commercial and/or open source Java/Swing/SWT based end user apps (but that is now starting to change).
Bottom line is developers, and especially commercial software companies, have preferred native compiled code for their products for good reason. They don't want to risk pissing off their end users with VM overhead.
But that is gradually changing. As older hardware gradually gets thrown to the junk heap, and as Java/Swing/SWT and .Net/WinForms and Mono/GTK# become better optimized, and as JIT compilers get better, the difference in overhead and performance gradually becomes less and less noticable, and less and less relevant.
Member since:2005-07-06
It's about time MS eats it's own .Net dog food. It's been, what, six years since the inception of .Net?
True, VS started using .Net 2/3 years ago. But it's easier to introduce a VM based app to developers, who understand and appreciate the cost/benefit analysis of VMs, and are more willing/patient to put up with slower start up times and more memory consumption, then it is to end users, who want stuff to just work, and not have their system slowed down.
Office 2007 doesn't represent the first time MS has used .NET in non-developer products.
Office 2003 Outlook Business Contact Manager
SQL Server Reporting Services
Windows' Media Center interface
are a few examples. Many of their server products also use .NET.
Member since:
2005-07-06
But lack of native code, while producing a larger and slower app most of the time, is better in the long run for everyone.
Pardon? given the deminishing returns on CPU performance, I doubt anyone will notice the difference between a quality written managed application vs. an umanaged one.
Managed code is very immature at this moment, I'll put money on it, when 3Ghz core 2 machines are common place, with dual core considered 'low end', the difference in performance and teh snappiness to the end user won't even be noticeable.
Heck, the latest Lotus Notes 7 is based around Eclipse/SWT - if IBM can get an application as complicated and complex as Notes available on a platform with reasonable performance, I'm sure any company can achieve it.
As a side note; the new Microsoft Office 2007 uses Winforms for its user interface front end; so even now there are applications that are exploiting the power of managed code without any noticeable affect on performance.