C# is a new programming language from Microsoft designed specifically to target the .NET Framework. Microsoft's .NET Framework is a runtime environment and class library that dramatically simplifies the development and deployment of modern, component-based applications.

The C# language is disarmingly simple, with only about 80 keywords and a dozen built-in datatypes, 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.

Java Programmers may look at C# with a mixture of trepidation, glee, and resentment. It has been suggested that C# is somehow a "rip-off" of Java. I won't comment on the religious war between Microsoft and the "anyone but Microsoft" crowd except to acknowledge that C# certainly learned a great deal from Java. But then Java learned a great deal from C++, which owed its syntax to C, which in turn was built on lessons learned in other languages. We all stand on the shoulders of giants.

The premise of the .NET Framework is that all languages are created equal. To paraphrase George Orwell, however, some languages are more equal than others. C# is an excellent language for .NET development. You will find it is an extremely versatile, robust and welldesigned language. It is also currently the language most often used in articles and tutorials about .NET programming.

While it is possible to program in .NET with C++, it isn't easy or natural. Frankly, having worked for ten years as a C++ programmer and written a dozen books on the subject, I'd rather have my teeth drilled than work with managed C++. Perhaps it is just that C# is so much friendlier. In any case, once I saw C#, I never looked back.