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On coming to depend on the readability of managed code

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Matt has a great post over at https://blogs.msdn.com/mattwar/archive/2004/09/17/230941.aspx.  I know exactly how he feels.  It's been four years now since I wrote any volume of C++ code. I've always thought of C/C++ as my native language after coming up through the early years of C++ compilers, but I think that phase is passing.

After a year or so of server-side JScript (really), 2 years away from the coal-face serving time as a manager and now a year of C#, I look at unmanaged code (especially COM-heavy code) and I find I can barely pick out the functionality from the plumbing, overhead, variant conversions and other assorted chaff.

I'm also always amazed at how much difference in readability having a set of widely adopted coding guidelines has made.
I can read so much more of people's code by glancing at it simply by the fact that there's a good chance the variables are called ledgerAccountList these days rather than pLdgAccts.

I suppose that brings me round to noting that despite developer machismo, English is actually still my native language rather than C, C++ or C#.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    October 07, 2004
    Well, this doesn't mean that COM or C++ code is bad, it's just you who don't know how to read it. Basically, it's all matter of habit.

    Guys who vote for C# to be everywhere need to understand that this is a language for a special market - be a MS answer to the Java in the .NET language family. This language has certain areas it's intended to solve which don't require low memory consumption, low overhead, responsiveness, complete control over exceptional situations. None of those requirements are satisfied by the .NET framework, so the mission critical applications like database systems, device drivers, etc. must not be written in C# or .NET in general.
  • Anonymous
    October 07, 2004
    Well, this doesn't mean that COM or C++ code is bad, it's just you who don't know how to read it. Basically, it's all matter of habit.

    Guys who vote for C# to be everywhere need to understand that this is a language for a special market - be a MS answer to the Java in the .NET language family. This language has certain areas it's intended to solve which don't require low memory consumption, low overhead, responsiveness, complete control over exceptional situations. None of those requirements are satisfied by the .NET framework, so the mission critical applications like database systems, device drivers, etc. must not be written in C# or .NET in general.
  • Anonymous
    October 07, 2004
    The comment has been removed