Masterminds of Programming

Chapter 13. C#

When Microsoft settled a lawsuit from Sun Microsystems over changes to the Java programming language, they turned to veteran language designer Anders Hejlsberg to design a new object-oriented language backed by a powerful virtual machine. The result was C#—and a replacement for both Visual C++ and Visual Basic within the Microsoft ecosystem. Although comparisons to Java are still inevitable in syntax, implementation, and semantics, the language itself has evolved past its roots, absorbing features from functional languages such as Haskell and ML.

Language and Design

You’ve created and maintained several languages. You started as an implementer of Turbo Pascal; is there a natural progression from implementor to designer?

Anders Hejlsberg: I think it’s a very natural progression. The first compiler I wrote was for a subset of Pascal, and then Turbo Pascal was the first almost full implementation of Pascal. But Pascal was always meant as a teaching language and lacked a bunch of pretty common features that are necessary to write real word apps. In order to be commercially viable, we immediately had to dabble in extending in a variety of ways.

It’s surprising that a teaching language would be so successful in bridging the gap between teaching and commercial success.

Anders: There are many different teaching languages. If you look at Niklaus Wirth’s history—Niklaus Wirth designed Pascal, later Modula and Oberon—he always valued simplicity. Teaching languages can be teaching ...