What are the differences between C C and C in terms of real-world applications

Question

I've decided to try my hand at one of the above languages, but given my interests as a web developer, I'd like to know the difference between them in their real-world applications. Though, I am a web developer, I do understand the concepts of C somewhat. So do go into technical aspects and feel free to explain.

Answer 1

C is a bare-bones, straightforward, and clean programming language that forces you to do everything on your own. It will not hold your hand or prevent you from shooting yourself in the foot. However, it comes with everything you'll need to complete your task.

C++ is C with classes introduced, followed by a slew of other features, and then some more. It won't hold your hand for you, but it will let you to do so with add-on GC, RAII, and smart-pointers. If you want to accomplish something, there's a good chance you can utilise the template system to provide you a simple syntax for it. (This is especially true with C++0x). This complexity also gives you the ability to create a dozen copies of yourself and inadvertently shoot them all in the foot.

Microsoft's attempt to improve on C++ and Java is C#. There are a lot of syntactical features, but it's nowhere near as complicated as C++. It runs in a fully controlled environment, so you don't have to worry about memory management. It does allow you to "go dirty" and use unsafe code if necessary, but it is not the default and requires some effort to shoot oneself.