Most common or vicious mistakes in C# development for experienced C++ programmers

Question

What are the most common or vicious mistakes when experienced C++ programmers develop in C#?

Answer 1

Attempting to implement const correctness on strings.

Answer 2

I've seen many C++ coders code in a COM style in C#, trying to deal with the inadequacies of the language. C# provides lots of a type safe support for your enums and there are usually nicer APIs then P/Invoking back down to C++.

The other thing I've seen catch most people out is that C# generics are not templates.

Answer 3

Calling GC.Collect.

Answer 4

Forgetting to specify access modifiers for every class member.

Answer 5

Writing the full namespace each time.

This is fine in C++ when you're typing std::this or boost::that. Not so great in C# when you repeat System.Windows.Forms.Whatever all over the place.

Answer 6

Incidentally, the C# compiler has a number of heuristics in it for helping out the experienced C++ programmer who is a novice C# programmer. For example, if you say

int x[];

the compiler will helpfully point out that the [] is a part of the type in C#, so you probably meant

int[] x;

C# also allows things like putting unnecessary semicolons at the end of a class declaration so that C++ programmers who are in that habit don't get bitten by it.