So, VB, J# and C#, then, that's about it, is it not? As for VB being incredibably easy to pick up, there's a lot of things that are when it's just drag an' drop components, writing VB by hand, on the other point, if not nice, and if you're going to do that, you really should learn C.
Yeah sure, its a lovely drag and drop components which I dont see happening in many other languages. VB is afterall, ine-efficient, even if you are a microsoft trained monkey with a phd in monkeying, you'll struggle to make it efficient - but because its fast and easy to do, then it is perfect for RAD.
At the same time, using .net or even just older Visual Studio parts, you can switch between languages easily - the objects, once completed are cross language, and whilst you wouldnt really want to go from VB -> C#, it is possible, so for elements which arnt efficient by nature (GUI front ends etc) can be written in one style, and then processor intesive stuff (image manipulation etc) can be written in tohers.
Erm, ITYWF I said variety, not versatility, but hey. The windows MFC is very evil, in my opinion, I have several APIs for linux that I don't like, GTK+ is relatively nasty, but you get round it by using one of the hundreds of wrappers that make life nicer. You have less choice as to what you can do in Windows. As for sound and video... depends on what you're wanting, and, you're also forgetting that MS have the manufacturers wrapped round their little fingers. Give it a few years, Open Source drivers will become common place. As for talking to video and soundcards, erm, you played with sound via dsp? it's simple, you feed it raw PCM, which is easy to generate. Video, well, if it's 3d, you write it in GL, coo, look, cross platform code, and, with Mesa installed, it *JUST DAMNED WORKS* in linux (works better if you have 3d support on your graphics card, of course, but hey).
No didnt actually mean output video, which I admit is completly screwed in windows hence their need for DirectX which is just a good old hack to break the fact that anything not NT was just written very wrong, and anything that is NT (XP and so on) whilst about infinitly better, is still pritty wierdly done. but GL only presumes that we are talking generated images such as GUI or Games, what about non-generated images or video streams?
What I actually meant by video was Video for Windows (which is very similar to the Video for Linux which it pre-dates) for getting video from a camera into the device in nice generic manner (isnt this Open Specicfication?) that allows people to write nice modular drivers for their video capture devices (camera, tv etc) and then other people to write nice interfaces for viewers recorders etc.
Hang on, now you've switched to package management?!
No. the use of the debian package manger is something that
*boggle* want to finish this sentence sometime?
errr sure. Got lost somewhere along the line - sentence meant to have read.
No, **my** use of the debian package manager is something that could descirbe the transmission of the binary, in this case, debian provide tools to help you move your binarys (and indeed source) between computer systems. Brilliant, nice, effective, something that is written (essentially) by the OS writers (ok so its not linux it self, but I think we can classify the distributer's as OS providers, where OS means a collection of Kernel and basic IO tools and complilers to allow use of Computer Hardware). Why arnt there more tools like this lying around?
No. I didnt switch to package managment. I mean the production of an executable file for another person.
ERm.. yeah that line and the one i didnt finished all together.
*boggle* now entirely lost track of what the hell your point was, and it seemed to dwindle further after here, so, erm. Yes, J. Whatever.
This was precisly the message I was trying to get across. Whilst MS is a fucked up operating system, buggy, slow, in-efficient, and sure, it might only be used because they happen to employ a bunch of, for lack of better words, managment and sales guru's who could sell a car to a Amish man, but they also ship a development kit which allows complete muppets, and i mean complete muppet in the way that complete muppet is defined by a moron who spent the last four years of his life in a coma, woke up and then got slapped in the head by a breezeblock can program in it.
When somenoe with a brain applies themselves to it, they can produce programs with astounding capability, purely because the systems "nicley" tie themselves into the Operating System.
oh sure, I know you're going to reply here with a bunch of "oh well if you go look at these libray files and these library files" but we're not nessicarrilly talking specifically about you progamming here.
J