It’s been a good few years since I tried in earnest to write anything for the Windows environment, but a day wrestling with Visual C++ and it all comes flooding back.

Why is everything so flaming complicated?

It may seem to be easy to do relatively simple things like designing dialogs and laying things out in a window, but when it comes to tying it all together and doing something useful with the app - and bear in mind that I tend to do I/O or other such functionality - it’s a bleeding nightmare.

So I’m sat here frustrated when I start remembering how much more satisfying I found Java when I was developing neural networks and genetic algorithms. ‘Can I talk to serial interfaces and read from joysticks?’ I wonder, and a quick bit of Googling and I’ve found a few references to potentially useful iraries and I have to say it looks hopeful.

So before I fully commit to the hateful slog that will be Visual C++ development, I might spend a few hours seeing if my forehead will have less brick imprints if I build usingJava instead.

It certainly would have a nicer feel to it.