D vs. C#

[Dave]

"Kyle Furlong" <kylefurlong at gmail.com> wrote in message 
news:ffdqe7$pvi$1 at digitalmars.com...
> Mike wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I have some advanced knowledge of programming with C and C++.
>> While I like C for its simplicity and speed, it lacks some important 
>> functionality (like OO). I'm not very fond of C++, since it is quite 
>> clumsy. (But you know all that already)
>>
>> Anyway, I was looking for a new programming language for little projects. 
>> I looked into the specs of the D language and became quite fond of it. 
>> Anyway, I hear a lot of good things about C# as well.
>> I am not experienced enough to compare the two simply on the basis of 
>> their specifications. I tried finding some comparison on the internet but 
>> failed to find anything more recent than from 2003.
>>
>> I was wondering about the advantages of either and languages, and in 
>> which case one is more appropriate than the other and I hope you can help 
>> me out!
>>
>>
>> Many thanks in advance,
>> Mike
>
> C# provides all the niceties of a RAD IDE and a cohesive and very broad 
> standard library. You get this at the price of performance. C# is not 
> native, but runs in a VM like Java. While it does do some JITing, D and 
> other compiled languages will always be faster.
>
> Additionally, I think D has a bit cleaner syntax, though C# is a huge step 
> up from C++ in that respect.
>
> Oh, and if it matters to you, D templates and metaprogramming blow 
> anything C# has out of the water, yielding the potential for even more 
> performance increases.

D also supports inline asm, C-like pointer syntax (w/o C#'s 'unsafe' and 
'fixed') and easy use of C lib. routines.

The price for most of that is a non-moving GC, but I think that those can be 
developed to rival the speed of the moving GC's. D's built-in array slicing 
mitigates a lot of the need for a super-fast GC as well.