Is C# a viable language for a major project? [closed]

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I've been using C# for a while now and I love it for its great integration with Windows. The Win32 API in C++ is a monster, but that's another story. Anyway, I was wondering, is C# a "good enough" language to use for larger projects? Does Microsoft use C# in any of their applications? I've always assumed C++ was the only choice for large projects because of its speed and has no need for the CLR.

What is your opinion on C#?

EDIT: By large I mean applications like Microsoft Project (first example that came to my mind). It could also mean mission-critical applications, as well.

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Unless you're after extreme performance (eg gaming), C# is perfectly acceptable for almost any application - I've been developing enterprise-scale apps in it for years and as a general rule, the advantages far outweigh any (negligible) performance losses compared to C++ - especially when you factor in development time and the relatively low cost of improving CPU speed.

Since I've started using C#, it would take a VERY good reason to make me go back to something lower-level like C++ - There are simply so many advantages in terms of ease of development, memory management, a huge library (.Net framework), WCF, LINQ, etc.

I would personally consider C# before any other language when starting a new project

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I've using c# since it came out and so far there were only a few things I couldn't do with it such as print drivers. Other than that I developed fairly complex multithreaded server-side applications that are both reliable and fast.

Also - you may want to define "large".

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Yes, but I'd encourage you not to follow a Vendor Lock in pattern. Although you could argue that doesn't really apply to .net, but you would lose.

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SharePoint and Dynamics (Microsoft products) (and several others) are written almost exclusively in .NET (C#). They would certainly be considered large, enterprise scale applications. Almost all internal project at Microsoft, with the exception or Windows and Office supposedly are written in C# these days (I think it's even a requirement for new projects).

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You will incur larger startup times, as you have to load the .NET runtime. Other than that, performance is actually quite good for most things.

And with the garbage collection, memory leaks are less of an issue, so Java and C# both become good options for mission-critical applications (memory leaks grow over time, and can kill things that run for weeks or months at a time. With a more reliable memory footprint, you application can be more stable).

so... yes.