How do you mentally handle going from writing managed to non-managed code?

Question

~80% of the code I write is in C#. The other ~20% is in C++. Whenever I have to switch from C# to C++, it takes me quite a while to mentally "shift gears" to thinking in C++. I make simple mistakes using pointers and memory allocation that I would not have made when I was in university. After the adjustment period, I am fine and writing in native code comes naturally.

Is this normal? Does anyone else experience something similar and if so, what do you do to cut down on the time this wastes?

Edit: I'm not saying that I cannot work with memory allocation and pointers. I comfortably use them often in my C++ code. Just not immediately after working in C# for long periods of time.

Answer 1

Take your time and double check your work. Once you get back into the groove you'll speed up in no time.

Answer 2

Yeah, it's too bad so many colleges and universities fail to instruct students in resource management.

RAII will help you if you use it consistently.

Answer 3

I have the same problem. I use completely different color schemes for Visual Studio (dark-on-light for C++; light-on-dark for C# and VB).

Seems to help my brain ease the switch.

Answer 4

Have a checklist of frequent errors that you do when switching from one to the other, and refer to it each time. Simple yet effective.

Answer 5

I've experienced this myself. Its not just C# to C++ or managed to unmanaged. It happens at every change. I had this problem when moving from VB to VC++, CC++ to C#, C# to VC++, and even c# to VB.net(true story - courtesy ';').

Its only the time taken for adjustment that differs...

Answer 6

I feel your pain; when I go c# -> c++ I code like I'm drunk.

I usually start the switch by reading a few pages of code before I dive in and start.

Answer 7

This is one of the reasons I do far more work in VB.NET than in C#. I don't forget what language I'm in. If you have that option I recommend it. There really isn't anything you can do in C# that you can't do in VB.NET and the radically different syntax helps me context switch.

Answer 8

I have to go from coding Oracle-based SQL to Sybase-based SQL all the time.

What I find that helps is to have a same procedure sitting on my secondary monitor, with all the good stuff in it, simple cursor, proc setup, if-then statements.. all valid code in that language, so if I forget which environment has the ELSIF or ELSE IF variant, I can check my template source to find out.

Answer 9

I do this all the time. The c++ projects I work on have several things in them to ease the memory / resource stuff

a) use RAII wrappers

b) systematically use boost shared_ptr

These 2 things allow for fire and forget programming on dynamically allocated things (we have well defined idioms that everybody knows)

Plus we have a well debugged library for doing locks, threads, etc

Helps a lot

And of course every now and then I complain about

• C++ not having try finally
• c# not having deterministic destructors

but - hey - thats life

Answer 10

I make simple mistakes using pointers and memory allocation that I would not have made when I was in university.

Well, there's your problem. Learn C++ well enough to see how you can avoid messing around with pointers and memory allocations in the first place.

Then switching between managed and unmanaged code becomes trivial.

It is only a problem for you because you're switching between C#, where you don't need to worry about anything whatsoever, and C++, which you don't know well enough to use safely.

Memory management in C++ is not difficult. If you're getting it wrong, it's because you haven't learned it properly. In well-designed C++ code, it simply is not a concern. It happens automatically, just like it does in C#.

Answer 11

Whenever I switch from C++ to Java, I always still think of where the memory is being allocated. I find it easiest just to not switch to thinking of the memory as managed...think about where it's going, and think about where you would be releasing it if you were writing it in a language without managed memory. And just don't write the lines of code you otherwise would.

Answer 12

It's normal to have problems switching from one language to another. C# seems close enough to C++, but in reality it isn't.

But bear in mind that in "modern" C++ most of the time you won't use memory management. It will be hidden from you, so normally I don't deal with pointers much ( at worst with smart pointers). But I know how they work. And this you should also, maybe you need a bit of practice with, as another participant said, the C language to have it right.

But in C++ there are also things like the templates, functors, algorithms, streams, that needs a bit of thinking because it's not java-C# like you may used to. And of course the use of the Standard Template Library and eventually boost.

But well, the "good" C++ developer should know why he doesn't use pointers :)