Tracy;

That is a good idea. If you seperate the elements of the application and devote each to a language - interesting thought! I did qualify my concern with the importance of managing the project. This goes along with that concept. I would hate to see as an example one object created and sub classed in more than one language.

I did a good bit of C programming (and Fortran - etc.) and like to crunch numbers. I still love C for its structure. It taught me some interesting concepts about programming. I wrote a company payroll system in C, using Exempt, Non Exempt and Union (hourly) workers as the model. After being put into use I redid the program using FoxPro 2.0, which was new in 1992. It took hours and not weeks to complete the task. Also I had so much more built in with FoxPro as far as features. You can do a lot with C but it takes time. If it is cost effictive it is a good tool. Otherwise...

I do want to see how all this plays out and that will take some time.

My brother in law who was a licensed general contractor told me I did excellent construction work. Foundation, framing, plumbing, electrical, drywall, painting and roofing along with finish work are things I enjoy. He told me to never go into business in construction, as I was a perfectionist. Well, I figured the work being done was for my family. I would also do the same for anyone else. Therefore, I would not be able to make a profit.

I would spend on average 4 hours to design, 1 hour to purchase required materials and a few minutes to implement what ever I was doing. Lots of planing as I like to do things once. I take that same approach to creating any data based program. One thing that Tom Retting taught me about programming, “First turn off the computer and then define the system before writing one line of code”! I will never forget his words and that was in 1982.


Tom




>Oh, but you are so forthright and honest! You may actually do MSFT some good! :0) As we all know, there are pros and cons to all emerging technologies. Actually I had in mind an IT shop having a business layer already done in C for example. Then later on having the option of either hiring C, VB, or ASP developers to handle the front end and using the already defined classes. It opens up additional possibilities for businesses without having to reinvent the wheel in some situations.
>tRacy
>
>>David;
>>
>>Somehow I do not think Microsoft would want me for their .NET marketing team! :)
>>
>>Tom
>>
>>
>>>Thomas,
>>>
>>>>I have considered the ramifications of using multiple languages to create one .NET project. If this is done, the term “spaghetti code” will take on an entirely new meaning. Who will be the one who will have to debug such an application if something breaks or the application requires attention? How many people will have working knowledge of all languages used in such an instance?
>>>
>>>You have just pointed out an important consideration of the very interesting cross-language inheritance of .NET. In practical terms, if you take the approach that, "OK, let's build a development team. We seem to have more VB people around these days, so they can work in VB .NET, but here are few sharp C++ guys. Let's have them do some stuff in C#, and oh yeah, our old Cobol senior citizens can build some of our system, too."
>>>
>>>"Since it's all cross-language, we can each inherit from each other on various parts of the system, because it really doesn't matter any more." Until, as you said, you actually have to debug and maintain, perhaps with a different set of developers. There is a lot to be said for narrowing the focus.
>>>
>>>I think the most interesting part of cross-language might be in getting pre-built classes from the component market and subclassing them in your language of choice -- which really is what you have with the .NET Framework anyway.
>>>
>>>Good discussion...