Question

I am a c# programmer but today i am thinking of migrating to c++, The first thing i wonder about is that there is 2 types of projects CLR Console Application and Win32 Console Application

Also what confuses me is that in Win32 i can write line to console using either printf or cout

while in CLR i can also use the familiar Console::WriteLine

i am totally confused what is the point of having all that functions just to write a line and what is the difference between the CLR and Win32 Applications

Answer 1

• printf is the C way. It isn’t typesafe, but it’s fast. It runs on the standard C library. (C++ can do this, but it’s not normal.)
• cout is the C++ way. It’s typesafe, and is the normal way in C++. It runs on the standard C++ library.
• WriteLine is the .Net way, and thus the C++/CLI way. It runs on the .Net library.
• WriteConsole is the Windows way. It’s a raw operating system call, so is fast, but it’s hard to use and not portable. Don’t use this.

As for comparing the languages, C is a less complicated language (making your code more complicated), but C++ has templates, so they’re roughly equivalent in speed, depending on the task. They’re normal Win32 applications, which means they’re pre-complied to raw machine code, and directly run by the processor. C++/CLI runs atop the .Net framework, which means it’s compiled as it’s being run by the .Net framework, and it tends to run slower than C or C++.

Take all this with a grain of salt. WriteConsole can do things the others can’t easily do. The .Net framework is amazingly fast at certain things. But in general, use the version associated with your lanugage.