What does “Object Oriented” mean?
Can Perl or PHP be considered “object oriented”? Sometimes? When? How?
What is the alternative to object oriented? What does that mean?
Further, what is .NET useful for? If, hypothetically, I wanted to create a simple server/client program for my LAN (mostly win98 and XP), would C# and/or .NET make it easier somehow? Does this rule out all Linux? It sounds like TCP/IP is somehow intergrated? Would there not be networking (and GUI) libraries written and available in C to compensate?
[venturing off into IMHO]
I’ve scoured the forums and have read all the threads I can find and am more confused than ever regarding which language to choose (to learn). I was dead set on C++, and it’s still the front runner, but I would like some advice, please.
I’ve programmed extensively in Applesoft BASIC on my Apple //e (heh), and more recently Perl and PHP for pretty intensive (to me anyway, meaning several thousand lines, mySQL backend) web/database applications. I’ve taken C source code for linux, made small changes, and recompiled.
I want to be able to build a windows hello world program in minutes, using freely available libraries - complete with <file - exit>, <minimize> etc,… I want to easily communicate with other computers on my LAN via name. I want to leverage existing libraries and routines people already wrote to automate this shit.
But, then, I also want to (for example) write a quick linux program to monitor the serial port and listen for telnet-like instructions on port 12121.
Is there any language/toolkit which will satisfy these desires? If I get Borland C++ Builder, will the knowledge gained be sufficent to write simple programs which could be compiled with gcc?
Cost of the dev kit is not too much an issue as I am not directly responsible and in the end it’s a writeoff…
Graphics are not really an issue, and I’d like to steer away from java mainly because of the download. I hated downloading a 60k app then discovering I need to install 8MB JRE 1.4, that’s worse than having to go find the VB dlls. Then the apps didn’t “look right” in windows, and tended to be slow IME. Same for .NET - a 30MB download IIRC.
I apologize in advance, this post got away from me a little…