There are some specially designed benchmarks which show that JIT'd (.NET)
code is faster than "native" code. (Sorry, I don't have the reference
handy).
The basic idea is that each new series of a CPU (x386, original Pentium, P4,
etc.) has additional instructions to futher optimize certain situations. If
you ship "native" code that targets a generic Pentium, that code won't be
able to take advantage of new instructions that are only available on a P4.
However, the JITer can carefully examine which CPU it is running on, and use
that knowledge to create faster native code from the MSIL.
As CPUs get faster, and memory gets cheaper, some things that currently have
to be done in native code might move into .NET. Human perception and
reaction time isn't changing; if future hardware can execute 1000
instructions to draw a line in the same time that it takes to excute 100
instructions today, then things like DirectX could one day be managed.
But as I said in another post, there's generally little pressing need to
rewrite exsiting working code into .NET. I suspect that, more than anything
else (long term), will keep everything from being in .NET.
Dan
"Andrew C"
wrote in message
news:41758898_2@newsprd01...
>I don't want this to degenerate into an off-topic discussion about what
> Microsoft is doing, but I'll say this and will then stop posting to this
> thread...
>
> MFC in my opinion is a multi-faceted dinosaur. It has uses to be sure, but
> I
> don't blame Microsoft for letting it go. I only use it as a convenient
> wrapper around the Win32 API functions. I for one won't miss it.
>
> .NET is pretty cool, but I don't think it will replace all programming.
> For
> example, sometimes you have no choice but to go to assembly or write your
> own memory management C library (both of which AutoCAD does in spades I'm
> sure). DirectX will probably never be managed code, for instance.
>
> Just because MFC depreciates and Microsoft concentrates on .NET does not
> mean the whole native code world is coming to an end. Finally Microsoft is
> leaving something for other people to do, even if their "managed code"
> concept is a rip-off of Sun's Java. If Microsoft stops letting native code
> run, Linux will suddenly be _very_ popular.
>
> If DAO goes away you won't be the only one left behind. And I'm sure
> someone
> will pick up the slack and write a 3rd-party DAO-compatible library. We
> live
> in a capitalist economy that nobody rules. Not even Microsoft. For now,
> just
> use your "depreciated" API and relax.
>
> Anyway, this is getting too off topic.
>
> -Andrew
>
>
