C#

C# Overview

C# (C Sharp) is a general purpose, staticly typed, object oriented programming language that was founded in 2000 by Microsoft as part of their .NET Initiative.

C# was designed to be portable and fast and is tightly coupled with Microsoft’s .Net Framework. It was created along side the .Net framework in the late 90s.

C# is one of the most popular programming languages in the world, and can be used to write applications on almost every platform including, Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and Linux.

In fact more and more people are using C# to write cross platform apps everyday because it allows for a shared codebase across platforms. Basically you could write all of your backend business logic and database management code once, and use it on iphone, android and desktop.

How C# Runs

All C# code is compiled down into an intermediate language called common language which is then translated and executed by the .Net runtime also called the Common Language Runtime (CLR). This ensures that C# programs can be run on virtually any combination of hardware and operating system.

The underlying C# runtime uses an automatic garbage collector to manage memory, and the syntax of C# is largly influenced by Java.

Choosing an IDE

Most developers choose to write C# using a specilized integrated development enviornment called Visual Studio. Visual Studio is an IDE that is maintained and developed by Microsoft, so it’s the best choice and realisticly the only choice for writing C# applications.