What are the differences in the .net programming languages?

Question

Okay, so I understand all the languages of the .net platform are designed to work with each other. And I also understand Microsoft created the different languages so people who are comfortable with a certain language can be acclimated to .net quickly and easily.

My question is, what are the differences for someone who doesn't know any languages yet? I'm looking into something in the networking profession, but would like to know a language in case the need ever arises.

Also, where does ASP.net come in to all of this?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

The only difference is syntax. The languages compile to the same base code and support all of the same classes and objects.

If you have never learned a language before, you might find VB.NET a little more comfortable, since it more closely mimics a natural language without all those crazy brackets and things. However, as you grow as a programmer, you'll find that c# more closely follows the other powerful and widely used programming languages, and it's actually easier to read and code once you are used to it.

ASP.NET is part of the .NET framework. It is essentially a web interface to the .NET framework, just like WinForms are the Windows/Desktop-space interface to the .NET framework. Essentially, it is a collection of pre-built .NET classes and controls that generate HTML for you, to ease the web application development process and provide common, pre-built solutions to persistent programming problems, like datagrids and maintaining state across pages - things that most every web app needs to do, so why bother re-writing that functionality every time? ASP.NET takes care of it for you so you can focus on the specific problems of a particular project.

Answer 2

There are some extremely minor differences between the languages like C# and VB.net or C++/clr:

C#: you can write 'unsafe' code that uses pointers and more closely resembles C++. Unsafe code removes extraneous type checking and should perform better. C# also supports static classes where VB.net does not (VB.net uses shared classes which are very similar to static classes).

VB.net: you can use the friend keyword to allow certain classes access to protected and private members / functions of another class. I really wish they would add this feature to C#......

C++: you can write unsafe code here as well too, as well as straight C++ code but the compiler doesn't allow certain things, and keeping track of managed memory and allocated memory is quite a pain.

For the most part, beginners should just pick a language that they are comfortable with and learn that. You'll be able to take your knowledge of the .net framework with you to any other .net language, and these differences shouldn't cause any major problems for most application designs. Worse comes to worst, you can always use the reflection namespace classes and bypass language constraints.

Answer 3

.NET languages are High Level Languages with the property of Compiling program written in any .net languages in one form (Microsoft System Intermediate Language) and execute it on many platforms that are available, like, windows (default), Linux and others using Common Language Runtime (runtime environment).
And the Answer: Since .NET languages are High Level Languages, English like. Learning these languages is very easy. Also, the Integrated Development Environment, where developers code (is award winning Visual Studio .NET), eases rememberence of syntax by providing template as you type the code. .NET languages are designed keeping in mind the need of networking features in a program. So .NET languages are rich in it.
ASP.NET is extension to web programming where any .NET Language can be used to provide functionality.
So, just go ahead and learn any one language, VB.NET, C# etc, and enjoy ease of programming through .NET Languages.