Programming Languages: Managed versus Native - The Decision
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As we've arrived at the final page, it is safe to say that you now know enough about managed and native code for you to make your own decision; however, let me sum up and present some advice at to when to use each.
Now that we know the advantages of each one, we can safely state that C# was built for speed of development and minimizing the amount of bugs that can occur. C++, on the other hand, gives you control over the hardware but makes you responsible for doing that efficiently; also, it is up to you to write as bug-free as you can. If you pull all of this off gracefully, you will be rewarded with extra speed and greater control over what is happening behind the scenes.
In general, it is a good idea to use managed code for business applications, as these require stability, efficiency, and security with a short development time, unless you already have a big company that can support that financially.
Managed code should also be used for web sites, unless you write one with a real time system at its center, like a consistently updated sales site. You can choose ASP.Net or Java as managed codes, or even interpreted ones like PHP and PERL.
When you're creating real time, mission-critical applications, the perfect solution looks to be native code. This is the case for operating systems, RDBMS engines, kernels, drivers, games, real time simulations, and so forth. If you generally write applications that require speed, you want to stick with these. This would be true of applications that play music, edit videos, or process photos.
The portability issue can also be a major deciding factor. If you use the application only on devices that have the .Net Framework already installed, you may want to reduce the development time and stick with C#.
History is repeating itself. This war was already fought on a different level, between Assembly code and C. As those results showed, there is no such thing as an absolute winner, as each one has its place, and both of them can co-exist. You still need C++ to write managed code, as we should not forget that C# eventually is created inside C++. As I said before, everything has its place and time, so you just need to figure out what you want and what is more appropriate for you!
With the belief that you have accumulated all the knowledge you need to make your decision, I’m going to end this article, but not before I point out that you can post your thoughts related to it here on the blog or join our forum over on DevHarware and act accordingly there. “Live with Passion!”
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