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What is the C# language? Now we are not talking about the musical notes that you can play on a piano. Instead, we are talking about the C# computer and internet based language, which is a middle level computer language, I may add. What does middle level mean?

It means that the C# language is not into the details of any particular operating System as C and C++ are, which are low level languages, because they deal with the low level details, making them powerful and able to do virtually anything the computer is capable of doing, short of turning itself on.

It also means that the C# language is not too far removed from underlying programming as high level, scripting languages are, like PHP, perl, javascript, VBScript, and Visual Basic. These languages are removed from the underlying processes making them simple to learn but not very flexible or powerful, as C# is.

The C# language needs to be a middle level language in order to be cross platform, which gives it an advantage over C and C++. In fact, the C# syntax is similar to that of JavaTM, C, and C++, from which it was inspired.

Like the JavaTM language, C# is an easily programmable managed language, having built in garbage collecting and dynamic memory management, making programming faster and safer than C and C++. Also included in C# is Exception catching, Strong Typing (all data have a fixed type), and its nature that everything in it is an Object. That everything is an Object means that, in the C# language, every object instance inherits the behavior of object (an alias to System.Object), as well as any other classes in the inheritance chain.

These factors, which are discussed further in this web site, show that the C# language is strongly suited for programmers who prefer to think in terms of objects and wish to learn a language or improve their skills in one that is fun to program with. That is why I am writing this web page: So that others may share in this resource of C# knowledge and go on to develop new ideas and applications with the power of C# technologies.

Also noteworthy is the fact that C# and the CLI (Common Language Infrastructure) specifications are now released to the anyone who wants to develop their own version of C# compiler and CLI runtime. One such opensource implementation that runs on all platforms is Mono.

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