Question

If you had to decide between C# and Managed C++, which would you choose and why?

Are there benefits of Managed C++ over C#? Which language do you prefer? What decisions would you make under what circumstances?

Answer 1

I would use managed C++ if I:

• Needed to integrate with existing C/C++ code
• Needed to port existing C/C++ code to .net
• Needed to use .NET objects from C++
• Needed to expose .NET object over COM in a more complex way than what .net makes easy
• Needed to access hardware directly
• Needed to call lots of unmanaged APIs

And already had some skills in C++, as the above tasks will need a experienced C++ programmer. Most of the time I would only consider managed C++ if the company already had a C++ code base, otherwise who is going to maintain the managed C++ code.

In other cases I would always choose C#. Even if I choose managed C++ for part of the system, I would try to write as much of the system as possible in C#.

Think of manage C++ as a bridge building kit for going between the
unmanaged world of C/C++ and the
managed world of .NET.

If you only need to call a few simple APIs from C#, then see pinvoke.net and this overview to find how to call them from C#, as a few lines of complex pinvoke code (prebuilt bridge) in C# is normally better then introducing C++ to a project that is not already using it.