Is there any reason a .Net windows programmer needs to learn C or C++ anymore?

Question

Can someone describe what advantages a C or C++ programmer would have over a .Net programming when developing for Windows?

Answer 1

There's a saying that every sufficiently complex C application ultimately ends up reimplementing parts of C++. The same goes with C++ programs and higher languages. Learning C and C++ will indirectly make you a better programmer by helping you gain a deeper understanding of how .Net actually works, and why the designers made the choices they made.

A programmer is only as good as his understanding of the layers beneath him. .Net does a pretty good job of abstracting a lot of machine architecture issues out of view, but it's not perfect. There are still leaks in the abstraction layer where an understanding of lower-level issues will help you make good decisions at the .Net layer.

A short, incomplete list of these issues includes:

1. Interop with native code, especially with the Windows API
2. CPU cache coherency (if you don't believe me, google the slides from the PLINQ presentation at PDC '09)
3. Value type performance vs. Reference type performance (this is firmly footed in the .Net world, but learning C/C++ makes the differences between stack and heap allocations more explicit in some ways).
4. Kernel scheduling issues (i.e. why it's a bad idea to spin off 1000 threads)
5. Understanding the garbage collector is also best achieved by writing a few memory management schemes in non-garbage collected languages.

Answer 2

You should learn enough C to be comfortable with the native Windows API, as it's quite handy when writing complicated UI and when interacting with the system.