Software Development magazine has issued a C# article in their latest edition (October 2002). The article is written by Larry O'Brien and is titled "C#, The Sweet Spot". You can link to it at http://www.sdmagazine.com/documents/sdm02010b.htm but you will need to register to read it online.

Highlights include:

...it should be stated early and often that several of the most useful libraries in the .NET Framework SDK, such as Windows Forms, remain proprietary to Microsoft.

Although Microsoft will take pains to deny it, C# is the "first among equals" when it comes to programming the .NET Framework SDK, the most significant API from Microsoft since Win32.

Even more significant than new language constructs such as delegates and attributes (or the evolutionary but real improvements over Java in facilitating network, threading, database, and input and output), C# and .NET have rediscovered the importance of the underlying operating system.

Any team willing to commit to a Windows-specific product path should strongly consider C#....No studies have yet been done, but I've been leading teams of Java programmers since 1996, and am convinced that C# has significantly higher productivity with minimal risk.

However, even with the promise of higher productivity, management should andwer two questions before making the C# leap: Is Windows-specificity strategically acceptable? And, what are the training costs?

The training costs are also not trivial...

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Analysis: Interesting article. Here's another developer who prefers C# for RAD development in .NET...

Bill Anderson