Advantages & Disadvantages of writing IE addons in .NET

Question

Since i am a .NET developer, I am planning to write a IE addon in .NET. Does anyone here have experience with/in developing IE extensions in .NET that can share their knowledge?

Specifically i like to know about advantages & disadvantages of using .NET for this task in comparison to ATL COM.

Answer 1

I'd rather say that advantages & disadvantages are not bound to IE addons but more to the programming languages and their platforms.

.NET:

• It is easier and more safe then C++
• Easy to create and program UI
• Requires end user machines to have a specific .NET Framework installed (you can run your addon on compatible frameworks)
• Uses more memory
• Requires to declare WinApi functions and constants if you need them

C++ (ATL COM approach):

• Uses less memory
• Can be statically linked thus does not require .Net frameworks, Visual C++ runtimes, etc (in other words run everywhere)
• Easy to call WinApi
• Requires more knowledge and generally more tough then .NET
• Awful UI editor (at least the built-in for ATL/MFC)

So if you are a .NET guy pay attention to compatibility with different .NET Framework versions. Other stuff is minor.