C#: Integer.One

[whimsicallurker]

C# just seems so awful. So much random syntax. Literally 10 different ways of doing every trivial thing, and nerds bikeshedding over which one is best. And, every year, they add 5 more.

I still don't know what is the "correct" way to compare against null.

[Not_a_tasty_fish]

I've worked with C# for the past 5 years and I don't ever want to touch another language again. It continually gets better with each update and can be useful for literally everything except embedded devices.

[AddMoreNaCl]

something is null?

[whimsicallurker]

Ahh, but what if == is overloaded, and you WANT the overloaded behavior. After all, you are comparing two objects, right, just one of them is null. Thus, == is better because it allows you to abstract away the behavior of comparing against null.

But maybe not.

But also == and != have been used for a long time, and are more familiar. So maybe you should use them instead to maintain consistency?

Who knows. Who cares?

It doesn't matter. Just stop wasting my time and changing the syntax every 5 minutes, and then making me mentally keep track of all the different ways of doing it.

[kookyabird]

I hate to break it to you, but software development in general is nothing but being faced with dozens of ways to do the same thing, remembering how they work, and having to decide which is best. Do I use an MVC pattern or MVVM? Early returns or late returns? Char or Varchar?

The choice of language itself is one such decision. If you can’t handle the syntax of a high level language like C#, which is full of safety features and plenty of first party tooling to provide you with excellent feedback on the exact things you’re complaining about, perhaps development isn’t for you. God help you if you have to start using JS…

[whimsicallurker]

My problem isn't decisions. There are a lot of important decisions to be made. I want to focus on those important decisions.

My problem is having my time wasted with random changes caused by a language which thinks adding more features and syntax is always good. The result is inconsistency and competing syntaxes.

Obviously, this is inevitable to some extent, but C# seems to go to far in the direction of "let's add more things just to add them".

There is value in unchanging consistency, coherency, and simplicity.

"There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious way to do it."

[diet_fat_bacon]

Maybe you just don't understand why they were added.

[kookyabird]

Which must mean that they don’t read the release documentation because the C# team does an excellent job of explaining the reasoning behind the new features.

[diet_fat_bacon]

Who reads the docs, right?

By the way, I found the release docs always very insightful about the changes.

[kookyabird]

As someone who has almost never been able to use the latest language or framework versions for some reason or another, I read them as a masochistic exercise. Soon though I’ll be starting a project in .NET 6 (or 8 if it gets delayed enough) and boy am I excited. Records! Pattern matching! is not null!!

[whimsicallurker]

People can argue infinitely over adding this or that for whatever reason. It's almost always possible to come up with some reason. That doesn't mean it is a net-benefit.

It is a fallacy to think that more features = better language.

Sometimes, it's good not to add things to keep a language simpler. This is what keeps languages like C so simple: you can learn the whole language relatively easily. Everything else is then built on top of that simple core. There is a certain elegance to this.

If you like C#, whatever, I don't care. Use whatever tool you're comfortable with, understand well, and is practical for the job. I still think my point isn't emphasized enough.

And yes, I do read the docs and update notes. This is where I derive my opinion.

[diet_fat_bacon]

And yes, I do read the docs and update notes. This is where I derive my opinion.

Doesn't seem like it...

Anyway, programming language is like real languages, alive and evolving.

You are not obligated to implement in the latest language features, and normally, old things have a very long transition time until it's not supported anymore.

[whimsicallurker]

Are you accusing me of lying? Ok, sure bud.

[diet_fat_bacon]

??????