Section 1.4. The C Language

1.4. The C# Language

The C# language is disarmingly simple, but C# is highly expressive when it comes to implementing modern programming concepts. C# includes all the support for structured, component-based, object-oriented programming that one expects of a modern language built on the shoulders of C++ and Java.

A small team led by two distinguished Microsoft engineers , Anders Hejlsberg and Scott Wiltamuth, developed the original C# language. Hejlsberg is also known for creating Turbo Pascal , a popular language for PC programming, and for leading the team that designed Borland Delphi , one of the first successful Integrated Development Environments for client/server programming.

The goal of C# is to provide a simple, safe, object-oriented, Internet-centric, high-performance language for .NET development. C# is simple because there are relatively few keywords . This makes it easy to learn and easy to adapt to your specific needs.

Keywords are special words reserved by the language that have a specific meaning within all C# programs. Keywords include if , while , and for . You'll learn about these keywords in the coming chapters.

C# is considered safe because the language is type-safe , an important mechanism to help you find bugs early in the development process. This makes for code that is easier to maintain and programs that are more reliable. C# 2005 was enhanced in many ways, one of which was to add support for generics (see Chapter 14), which makes collections type-safe as well, thus greatly improving the reliability of advanced applications.

C# was designed, from the very start, to support object-oriented programming. This book will explain not only how to write object-oriented programs, but also why object-oriented programming has become so popular. The short answer is this: programs are becoming increasingly complex, and object-oriented programming techniques help you manage that complexity.

C# was designed for .NET, and .NET was designed for developing web and web-aware programs. The Internet is a primary resource in most .NET applications.