> How does it compare to the c++? > The Borland C++ code has only partially been migrated to VC++ for performance comparison testing, but early hints are that the file reading and low-level string parsing (by index) perform about the same in C#. The file reading similarity I can understand because it's mainly the OS doing the work, but it suggests that the JIT'd instructions for indexing into strings and large arrays is about as good as what C++ can do with raw pointers.
It's been a kind of urban legend for decades that you have to use C/C++ for this kind of low-level parsing and indexing, but I've grown increasingly sceptical and I'm hoping that this evidence will back me up. I've watched my colleagues suffer terribly in C++ for a decade to do some of the simplest things that .NET developers spit out in a line or two (stream readers, LINQ, XML conversion, Azure Storage, REST services, etc). It's like they're on a desert island building everything out of coconuts. Watching them has convinced me that C++ no longer has any place in the world of typical business apps, let it stay in embedded systems and drivers. To their credit, the C++ guys are enjoying the shock and awe of how productive and easy C# coding is, and they're sort of cheering for .NET to be a viable platform for a rewrite (so am I). I'll let you know if more interesting results arrive. *Greg* >
