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Programming Language for Corporate UI Research?

Posted by Cliff on from the best-language-for-the-job dept.

Daniel Wigdor asks: "I'm a PhD candidate doing an internship at a major American UI research lab. They distribute an input/output hardware device to research labs, along with a Java API for the development of 'concept pieces' (here's an example from a university). Java was chosen because it was simple, and seemed, at the time, to be the language of choice for UI researchers in both the corporate and academic worlds. There is now pressure to switch from Java to C#, since they don't have the resources to maintain an SDK for both. We're not at all concerned with system performance, since this is only for concept-development: it's really just about accessibility for newcomers to the hardware. Given that, what would the community advise by way of a choice between Java and C#?"

2 of 115 comments (clear)

  1. You're asking *Slashdot*? by Short+Circuit · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You're asking Slashdot, where anti-MS sentiment is a given? Good luck getting anyone to recommend C#.

    Actually, if C# was supported under other platforms as well as it is under Windows, then I'd say, go forit.

    However, since C# (and .NET, in general) on Mac and Linux is likely to play continual catch-up a la WINE, I'd say stick with Java. It has much wider support in terms of development environments, giving researches flexibility in their choice and tools.

    When in doubt, go where there's more flexibility.

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  2. Comparing pluspoints by Carl+Rosenberger · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Pluspoints for Java
    --------------------
    + more OS Platforms that you can run on
    + Eclipse as a terrific free IDE
    + huge number of free open source libraries
    + further away from MS (O.K. there is Mono too, but you only have one single second vendor that you can rely on)

    Pluspoints for C#
    -------------------
    + one single choice for UI development
    + more language features (this may be a minuspoint for corporate development, when you only want one way to write things)
    + one language standard, less dialects
    + believe it or not, it's an open standard and (on paper) less proprietary than Java, which is owned by Sun
    + easy GUI development for WinCE or windows mobile, including many mobile phones
    + possible easy interaction with other .NET languages
    + easy direct interaction with Windows OS features

    Now what do you prefer?

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