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DotNetBaby says, “I’m an expert on sucking, and I can assure you that C# doesn’t suck.”

YourLanguageSucks is a wiki on theory.org that lists reasons why the most popular programming languages suck.  There are long lists of reasons why Java, JavaScript, C++ and PHP suck.  But the list for C# is very short:

• Supports ‘goto’.
• Two distinct sets of collections: non-generic and generic.  Stack and Queue have the same name in both their generic and non-generic flavors, but then we have Hashtable (non-generic) and Dictionary (generic).

The first reason is easy to discount: just avoid using goto!  The second reason is valid, but not really an issue if you use only generic collections, as I do.

I’m a huge C# fan (obviously, check out this blog) but I could add a few reasons to the list of why C# sucks:

• .NET doesn’t run natively on iOS, Android, WebOS, etc.
• .NET does not fulfill the promise of a unifying framework.  WinForms, WebForms, Compact Framework, Silverlight, WPF, and XNA all require different implementations instead of a single codebase.
• Newer versions of the .NET Framework are not automatically included with older versions of Windows.  Users must download and install the large .NET runtime, and many won’t bother.
• CIL bytecode is very easy to reverse engineer and thus requires obfuscation.

However, these criticisms are actually directed at the .NET Framework as a whole, and not C# itself.  So the verdict is in: C# Doesn’t Suck!

Article published on July 13, 2011

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