Best languages.

[capsulecorpjx]

Whats the best language for large scale enterprise applications?

Is it really Visual Basic 6 / Java / *.NET?
It seems that all three of these languages are still limited by their dependence on either bulky runtime files or the dependence on Virtual Machines.

Is C++ still king?

For example, wide spread, large scale applications like Internet Explorer / AOL's AIM / Nero's DVD recording software, what languages are they written in (is it C++ as I suspect)?
They seem to be independent of Virtual Machines / Runtime files.

[BillBoeBaggins]

When it comes down to it, Languages are just Tools, everyone has their favorite or "KING" but it depends on the project parameters.

If the project manager needs it to be light and fast with little dependencies then C++ would probably be your best bet. If your time to market needs to be short you would probably use VB/VB.Net. If your client is a big corporate office where they are going to control whats on their user PC's anyways and probably have images for them all then .Net utilizing C# would probably be good.

For an enterprise level software I would lean towards VB or VC++ or even C#. The more lines of code the more bugs. Just depends on your user bases tolerance for downloading things are, or how proficient your staff is at certain languages.

[Jacob Roman]

Yes, C++ is still king. C++ even supports inline assembly, executes fast, and requires little to no dependancies.

[abhijit]

What about the executables that come as email attachments and then try to take over your computer? What languages are those written in?

I had a dialer client once on windows 95 which refused to get uninstalled. Finally I formatted the hard-disk. Then it went away.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Most of that is C/C++.

Y'all shouldn't be ruling out C, just because its big brother is still around. Last I heard, C was still the king for embedded systems.

[Jmacp]

Probably a lot of those web hacks are in C++ or Delphi.

[szlamany]

Whats the best language for large scale enterprise applications?

For example, wide spread, large scale applications like Internet Explorer / AOL's AIM / Nero's DVD recording software

ENTERPRISE means many users in a large group using a common application.

IE, AIM, NERO are small-scale local app's - not enterprise applications.

There is contradiction in your first post that I do not understand...

[capsulecorpjx]

ENTERPRISE means many users in a large group using a common application.

IE, AIM, NERO are small-scale local app's - not enterprise applications.

There is contradiction in your first post that I do not understand...

Many users ni a large group using a common application.

So aren't many users using IE?

Anyway, if I go the definition wrong, then I meant to say widely distributed applications.

[szlamany]

Many users ni a large group using a common application.

So aren't many users using IE?

Anyway, if I go the definition wrong, then I meant to say widely distributed applications.

Sorry for being so specific - we develop enterprise applications here

From wikipedia:

An enterprise application is typically a software application hosted on an application server which simultaneously provides services to a large number of users, typically over a computer network. This is in contrast to the more common single-user software applications which run on the user's own local computer, and serve only one user at a time

So IE does not fit in that realm - it's run individually one user at a time.

In my opinion - the enterprise applications we develop (which serve 1000+ users on a WAN at a large customer site) are best written in a language like VB. That's because we constantly enhance this behemoth of a product for our customers.

Products like IE - which must properly utilize the local resources of a machine - are probably better written in a "closer-to-machine-code" language. But that isn't my area of expertise...

[Jmacp]

M$ Anti-spyware was written in VB.

[abhijit]

M$ Anti-spyware was actually taken over from a company called Giant. They were the best at that time.