Reading a file in windows 8 CPP vs CSharp

24 February 2012 brianbruff

I left my last blog very indecisive, would I use CPP, would I use .NET or would it be html/js.

Again I’m thinking Cpp is really for faster and better performance, and while it might even be the hands down winner on ARM architecture, I don’t expect to see any performance differences in the app I’m going to write.

I’m actually going to write the same application 3 times, and I’ll review my findings as I go along.

I’ll present the c++ and the c# apps here and the html/js will follow in the next blog post.

First up was the cpp. To be honest I did find this painful to write, the syntax is pretty convoluted. At least the markup for cpp is Silverlight so that was a no brainer.

<Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="#FF0C0C0C">
    <Button Content="Open" HorizontalAlignment="Left" 
         Height="4" Margin="84,45,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Top"
         Width="194" Click="Button_Click"/>
    <TextBlock HorizontalAlignment="Left" Height="381" 
        Margin="282,45,0,0" Text="TextBox" VerticalAlignment="Top" 
        Width="1065" x:Name="tb1"/>
</Grid>

I’ll even use the same markup for the C# application.

Now to the code

C++

#include "pch.h"
#include "MainPage.xaml.h"
 
using namespace Windows::UI::Xaml;
using namespace Windows::UI::Xaml::Controls;
using namespace Windows::UI::Xaml::Data;
using namespace Windows::Storage;
using namespace Windows::Storage::Pickers;
using namespace Windows::Storage::Streams;
using namespace Windows::Foundation;
using namespace CppApplication17;
 
MainPage::MainPage()
{
    InitializeComponent();
}
 
MainPage::~MainPage()
{
}
 
void CppApplication17::MainPage::Button_Click(Platform::Object^ sender, Windows::UI::Xaml::RoutedEventArgs^ e)
{
 
    auto openPicker = ref new FileOpenPicker();
    openPicker->SuggestedStartLocation = PickerLocationId::Desktop;
    openPicker->FileTypeFilter->Append(".log");
    auto pickOp = openPicker->PickSingleFileAsync();
 
    TextBlock^ content = tb1;
 
    pickOp->Completed = ref new AsyncOperationCompletedHandler<StorageFile^>(
    [content](IAsyncOperation<StorageFile^>^ operation)
    {        
        StorageFile^ file = operation->GetResults();
        if (file)
        {
            //content->Text = file->FileName;
            auto openOp = file->OpenForReadAsync();
            openOp->Completed = ref new AsyncOperationCompletedHandler<IInputStream^>(
            [content, file](IAsyncOperation<IInputStream^>^ readOperation)
            {
                auto stream = readOperation->GetResults();
                auto reader = ref new DataReader(stream);
                auto loadOp = reader->LoadAsync(file->Size);
 
                loadOp->Completed = ref new AsyncOperationCompletedHandler<unsigned int>(
                [content, reader](IAsyncOperation<unsigned int>^ bytesRead)
                {
                    auto contentString = reader->ReadString(bytesRead->GetResults());
                    content->Text = contentString;
                });                
                loadOp->Start();
            });
            openOp->Start();
        }
    });
    pickOp->Start();
}

 

C#

using System;
using Windows.Storage.Pickers;
using Windows.Storage.Streams;
using Windows.UI.Xaml;
 
namespace CSharpApp12
{
    partial class MainPage
    {
        public MainPage()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }
 
        async private void Button_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
        {
            var openPicker = new FileOpenPicker();
            openPicker.SuggestedStartLocation = PickerLocationId.Desktop;
            openPicker.FileTypeFilter.Add(".log");
            var file = await openPicker.PickSingleFileAsync();
            if (file != null)
            {
                uint size = (uint)file.Size;
                var inputStream = await file.OpenForReadAsync();
                var dataReader = new DataReader(inputStream);                
                tb1.Text = dataReader.ReadString(await dataReader.LoadAsync(size));                
            }
        }
    }
}

 

 

Now I’m not going to explain every trivial detail, but’s here where I felt I c# won out.

  • C++ 11 lambda syntax is a bit clumbsy, I don’t like having to pass down my closure variables or having to make a local copy first
  • C++ intellisense is vastly inferior, to the point of being just painful. Lets be honest, tooling cannot be under estimated when it comes to productivity. (this is why I when I write Java I find that only since i started using IntelliJ has my speed really ramped up, it’s the right tool for my background.)
  • I’m fast at typing, but using . is a lot faster than –> for pointers.
  • The async await construct is just magical!, now, to those you who I’m sure will complain that I’m comparing apples with oranges, you have a bit of a moot point, in C++ I could have used the parallel patterns library to make it a little neater, but nowhere near as close to C#.

My next post I’ll rewrite the same application in html + js. I predict that the syntax is not that difficult but productivity is where I feel I may fall down… let’s see.. It promises to be interesting.