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Low level programming in Windows - what language?


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I would like to know what your favorite "lowest level" programming language is that still properly works in Windows (XP). I am thinking good ol' C++, but I haven't touched that in years, and never under Windows. My aim is to have a small, fast, GUI-less application that can run on most Windows version. Any suggestions?

edit: while you're at it, could you point me to sites with snippets or small source code examples, especially for C(++) since it's apparently hard to google for.

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For embedded systems asm is a must...but im guessing your talking about pc apps and the like.... ive heard of certain parts of say a database program being in asm where io speed is important. ie one could optimize a program for a specific environment.

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Don't underestimate the power of ASM, but it can be tedious to do so what most remaining users do is first create the app in C, and then work out where the most time is spent, then optimize the crap out of that using ASM.

Remember kids: First work on structure and good algorithms. Only when you're done with that should you turn to optimization to get the very most out of your current solution (and it might be worth while to keep the original C-version of that section around for reference).

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For just basic programming I use Visual Basic. Its really easy to learn, and fast to use, but I wouldn't use it if your great at C, ASM (is it possible to be "great" as ASM?), or C++, as those languages are faster, and closer to the OS and System

I always thought VB was very close to the OS and there in lies the problem.

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For just basic programming I use Visual Basic. Its really easy to learn, and fast to use, but I wouldn't use it if your great at C, ASM (is it possible to be "great" as ASM?), or C++, as those languages are faster, and closer to the OS and System

I always thought VB was very close to the OS and there in lies the problem.

hehe this is true, but he does want a to prog for XP, therefore isnt VB a good idea?

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I would like to know what your favorite "lowest level" programming language is that still properly works in Windows (XP). I am thinking good ol' C++, but I haven't touched that in years, and never under Windows. My aim is to have a small, fast, GUI-less application that can run on most Windows version. Any suggestions?

edit: while you're at it, could you point me to sites with snippets or small source code examples, especially for C(++) since it's apparently hard to google for.

For a good windows programming language I'd say use one of the Express flavors of Visual Studio, or VS itself. The express editions are free, and it's easy to write managed code. .NET exports many of the libraries that you would use in to external .dlls held in the cache, so managed applications have small binaries and will load fast since most of the modules are already in system cache. The only problem is the prerequisite of the user installing the runtime, but many will have it installed via update.

I'm using C++ Express. I like having the choice of writing either managed or native applications. C++ also makes it easy to import C projects. C++ Express also has a syntax to inline some assembly code for those times when you REALLY need speed(e.g. hash functions, encryption, compression).

Today the only languages I use are C++, PoSH, and PHP.

I'd point you to a C++ tutorial, but I can't remember how I learned it. It might be easier to learn .NET first than to learn .NET and C++ at the same time. I stated using VB .NET for about a year before I used C++ .NET. You could also learn .NET by learning to use Windows Powershell, but that's not a compiled language, it's easy to use however. So I'd say start out with VB .NET if C++ scares you.

I don't see how it could be hard to find example code for C/C++ given the number of projects on Source Forge. Source Forge has many C/C++ projects to look at and many of them are library projects that can just be imported into native applications.

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assembly

I didn't expect anybody to be actually still coding in assembly.

I still do.

I'm curious for what you use it nowadays. I used to code in 80386 and a LOT in 6510, but I can't image a situation where I'd resort to assembly in this day 'n age. I think C is the limit for me.

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