Will modern C++ replace C#? Does Microsoft push developers to adopt C++ programming language? Many developers are talking about modern C++ popularity and migrating back to C++ from C#.
Does Microsoft push developers to use C++? And if yes, why?
It seems so, the suspicions are correct. Microsoft is pushing C++ to come back and become more popular.
It’s not sure why, but Microsoft anounced even before Windows 8 their WinRT as replacement for .NET framework as well as Win32 API.
In the beggining programmers wanted to crete fast software, mostly in C and C++, and later, as the hardware got faster, the focus moved towards speed of development, so Java, C# and other higher level languages became more popular.
In these days, when mobile processors get focus, the speed of software execution is becoming popular again together with longer battery life. Simply said, higher level code = more instructions = more juice required. So, probably this is the reason why C++ is pushed by Microsoft for desktop development instead .NET.
WinRT
In order to provide support for this transition Microsoft created a completely new Windows 8 programming API, named WinRT. It’s available for every C++ programmers via COM interfaces, in C# and for those who would like to crate HTML 5 and JavaScript apps, even in JavaScript. XAML will be also available in C++.
WinRT is not a replacement for .NET framework, but rather alternative available to developers.
Conclusion
C++ will never replace higher level languages such as Java, C# or Python and, of course, those languages will never replace C++.
WinRT is a large framework which gave Microsoft a chance to start with a clean slate and built an API using lessons learned in Win32 API and .NET framework itself.
