13 8 Language overview This clause is informative. C# (pronounced "C Sharp") is a simple, modern, object oriented, and type-safe programming lan- guage. It will immediately be familiar to C and C++ programmers. C# combines the high produc- tivity of Rapid Application Development (RAD) languages and the raw power of C++. The rest of this clause describes the essential features of the language. While later clauses describe rules and exceptions in a detail-oriented and sometimes mathematical manner, this clause strives for clarity and brevity at the expense of completeness. The intent is to provide the reader with an introduction to the language that will facilitate the writing of early programs and the reading of later clauses. Annotation free zone This entire clause is informative and intended to be an informal introduction to C#, so we have left it as is, unannotated. All the material in this clause is covered in more depth in later nor- mative clauses, and any relevant annotations have been placed in those clauses instead. This clause does round a few corners, and tells a small white lie or two, but such an approach is common in informal overviews and annotating them would disrupt the flow. 8.1 Getting started The canonical "hello, world" program can be written as follows: using System;