MS Kool-Aid

OhYeah!

I suppose it had to happed. At work we're migrating from a Foxpro shop to a C# shop. As much as I'm not a huge MS fan (I do sport several Linux tatts), the migration is a good thing. Foxpro pretty much sucks, so anything is better than that.

I went into the whole C# thing with a chip on my shoulder. Having spent some time using VB and VC 6, I was convinced it would be just as lame.

Happily, it's a pretty decent language. While I still assert Foxpro was handled by the third string at MS, C# feels top notch. It's got some of the goodies of Java (Garbage collection, thread synchronization, namespaces,etc.) with C-ish syntax. Plus, it's an ECMA standard, so it can have cross-platform implementations. It's by no means a free language, but it's available to hobbyists without charge.

So while banging away at our crusty DOS Foxpro tables, I stumbled onto XNA.

  • XNA is a game framework that sits ontop of C#.
  • XNA makes the hard stuff in game development (importing models, audio, etc.) easier.
  • XNA is free-as-in-beer.
  • XNA code runs on both the PC and the 360.


I'm now officially loving a Microsoft development product.


And that makes me feel dirty...

More XNA goodies over here.



Next >>


Gozer the Gozerian... good evening. As a duly designated representative of the City, County and State of New York, I order you to cease any and all supernatural activity and return forthwith to your place of origin or to the nearest convenient parallel dimension.

Dr. Ray Stanz