C# vs. C++ in a cross-platform project

Question

My team is planning to develop an application that is initially targeted for Windows but will eventually be deployed cross-platform (Mac, Linux and potentially embedded devices). Our decision is whether to use C#/.NET or generic C++ (with Qt as the user interface library). We’re projecting that by using C#, we can develop our product faster and at a lower cost due to the increase of productivity over C++, but we’re taking a gamble on whether cross-platform implementations of C# will be mature enough at the time when we want to roll out to other platforms.

Any suggestions from any of you who have been in a similar situation?

Answer 1

Despite all the potential cross platform capabilities of Mono, today, C++/Qt is simply a much more mature option than either C#/WinForms or C#/Gtk# for cross-platform purposes. Any productivity gains you would get by using a higher-level language would likely be offset by dealing with limitations of Mono.

Answer 2

Jen, I'm worried about the wording of your question.

"My team is planning to develop an application that is initially targeted for Windows but will eventually be deployed cross-platform (Mac, Linux and potentially embedded devices)."

Is the plan to do cross-platform or not? I can infer that code will be initially written for Windows and then, maybe sometime later, effort will be expended in modifying the project for cross-platform capability. This will not be good for your health or your team's health! A definite business decision needs to be made here. One of the golden rules of cross-platform development is to treat all targeted platforms with absolute equality.

Can you use C# for embedded environments? Has it already been done commercially? Just curious.

"We’re projecting that by using C#, we can develop our product faster and at a lower cost due to the increase of productivity over C++" What do you mean 'projecting'? On what facts and figures are you making this projection? Do not forget that the coding effort on some projects is low as ~20% of the total effort required to bring a product to market. So the question of productivity comparison of computer languages may be not that significant. In my experience it's not productive to choose a computer language on the so-called productivity criteria.

"we’re taking a gamble" I agree with that, and gambling seems to contradict the meaning of planning. The question is: what are the risks?

Have you considered internationalisation?

Yes, I'm being critical but someone who is paying the money for this project may well be more questioning.

Book: Cross-Platform Development in C++: Building MAC OS X, Linux, and Windows Applications by Syd Logan - ISBN 032124642X Gives an idea of the issues involved.

I've been on a cross-platform and internationalised projects for Windows, Mac, and Linux using C++/Qt. The latter does well for both issues. One dis-like I have of Qt is it is not modern C++ in idiom nor does it encourage the use of modern C++ idioms. Just like MFC.