Why Learn C#?
7 min read
This general-purpose language was originally designed by Microsoft to be used for developing apps on the Microsoft platform, and C# developers love the language for being pleasant to use and well-designed. If you want to build apps for the Microsoft platform, you should naturally learn C#.
Finally, C#(CSharp) is often the recommended language to use when making games through the Unity Game engine.
Why do we need to learn C#?
C# is widely used in multiple areas, which makes it more popular and in demand. It is used in the area of Game Development because of its features like an object-oriented, automatic garbage collector, etc. It is also used in the area of web development and desktop applications. There are other features of C#, like Integration with windows, properties, and events, Standard library, Indexers, Multithreading, etc., which are the reason for its worldwide popularity.
Beginner Friendliness
01. Simple to Get Started With C#
C#(CSharp) was designed to be simple and easy to use. Since C#(CSharp) is a high level language, it reads somewhat closer to English. In addition, C# abstracts away (i.e. handles for you) most of the complex details of the machine (computer) so you can focus on programming instead of worrying about the little details many consider both tedious and difficult.
If you're planning to get into C# game development, then Unity is also designed to be easy to get started with as well.
02. Slightly More Complex
As a lower level language than very high level languages such as Python, it may take time to learn everything about C#(CSharp), and sometimes it may take a bit more code to get some working prototype. However, as you get a hang of things, C#(CSharp) will become easier.
Scalability
01. Easy to Maintain
C#(CSharp) is a statically-typed language, which means your code will be checked for errors before it gets built into an app. Errors will be easier to track down, and since statically-typed languages are also more strict with how you code something, the codebase in general will be more consistent and thus easier to maintain as it grows in size and complexity.
02. Fast
As a statically typed language, C#(CSharp) is faster than dynamically typed languages because things are more clearly defined. Thus, when the app is running, your machine's resources will not be wasted on checking the definition of something in your code.
CSharp Community
First of all, community size is important, because the larger a programming language community is, the more support you'd be likely to get. As you step into the programming world, you'll soon understand how vital support is, as the developer community is all about giving and receiving help. Moreover, the larger a community, the more people will be building useful tools to make development in that particular language easier. As of now, there are over 600 notable programming languages world-wide.
So, with that context in mind, let's get into the details of the C# community size.
01. 4th Largest StackOverflow Community
StackOverflow is a programming Q&A site you will no doubt become intimate with as a coding beginner. Since StackOverflow was built with C#, the C# community there is quite strong. Some developers think C# questions get higher quality answers compared to other languages.
02. 7th Largest Meetup Community
At meetups, you can generally network and learn from fellow developers in real life. Meetups often offer mentorship to those who want it as well. There are 520 C# groups at Meetup.com, totaling over 140k members worldwide. Thus, in terms of programming languages, C# has the 7th largest Meetup community.
What's more, Unity is the most popular game engine that is cross-platform compatible, and it has a very large community with over 4.5 million registered developers and the greatest global market share in terms of game engines (45% so far). The Unity forum is extremely active, so if you want to develop games or virtual reality apps, Unity is a great choice where you'd easily be able to get support and also have access to tools built by fellow Unity developers.
Career Opportunities
16% of the top 100 million websites are powered by the ASP.NET framework, of which many might be using C#, so there are some opportunities in enterprise-level backend development. However, tech giants mainly use Java for its better portability and tools. Nonetheless, if you know already C#, it shouldn't be too hard to pick up Java if push comes to shove.
With the rise of indie game development, C# developers are likely to have better opportunity, since Unity has pretty much become the de facto game engine for indie game development.
Features of C#
C# contains various features similar to other programming languages such as c c++ and java. There are some additional features in C# that make it differ from other languages:
- C# is a modern programming language, and it is very powerful, simple for building applications.
- C# is useful in developing windows, web, and device applications.
- C# provides automatic memory management by clearing unused objects.
- C# is a type-safe programming language, and it makes it impossible to perform unchecked type casts.
- C# provides a structured and extensible approach for error detection and recovery.
- C# is a structure-oriented programming language, and the compilation, execution of c# applications are faster due to automatic scalability.
Future of C#
As C# was developed by Microsoft to build apps on the Microsoft platform, Microsoft will likely make sure to keep C# relevant and updated.
As a programming language's ability to stay relevant and survive also depends on whether the language is getting new blood. In terms of search volume according to Google Adwords, C# has a healthy number of search volume and is the 5th place in terms of the programming language people are most interested in learning.
Interest in learning C# grew by 22.2 % in 2015
Virtual Reality will likely continue to be a big thing, and independent game development will continue to grow in popularity. Since Unity is a major player in VR/game development, C# has a pretty optimistic future.
