Visual Studio C++ .NET

[squako]

I am trying to get into programming on Windows.
(I am a mac programmer, versed in Objective-C and Cocoa)

Is Cocoa to Mac
as Visual Studio C++ .NET is to Windows?

If I want to get started programming on windows is .NET the framework I should learn?

Also, I just installed windows XP on my mac.
Is windows XP Obsolete?
Does the latest version of Visual Studio and the .NET framework work only on Windows Vista?

 

[jmcilhinney]

This is a VB.NET forum exclusively so it's not the place to ask questions about VC++.

I don't know much about Mac OS and Cocoa but I can tell you that Covoa is an API while Visual Studio is a development environment. You can use VS to build applications that target the .NET Framework just as you can use other development tools to build applications that target Cocoa. I think you'll find that the .NET Framework is more extensive than Cocoa and lives at a higher level.

The vast majority of application programming on Windows these days is .NET-based. I'm not really sure how much value there is in C++.NET unless you're already a C/C++ developer. VB.NET and C# are both easier to learn and far more widely used.

Microsoft would tell you that XP is obsolete but there are a very large number of people still using it, particularly in business environments. It will be around for a while yet. That may change in a relative hurry when Windows 7 arrives but for now you're safe developing on it and for it.

.NET 3.5 will work on XP SP2 or later.

 

[jmcilhinney]

I don't know much about Mac OS and Cocoa but I can tell you that Covoa is an API while Visual Studio is a development environment. You can use VS to build applications that target the .NET Framework just as you can use other development tools to build applications that target Cocoa. I think you'll find that the .NET Framework is more extensive than Cocoa and lives at a higher level.

Looks like Cocoa may encompass development tools too. Maybe they are equivalent to the .NET Framework SDK, which includes the low-level tools like compilers and the like. VS is a full-blown IDE, the like of which you won't see on Mac OS at all I think. Tools like JBuilder or the like are a similar concept but don't really compare to VS in terms of functionality.

Again, take anything I say regarding Apple and Mac OS with a grain of salt because my knowledge in that area is sketchy at best.