thrown into a backend project as a backend dev with a language I don't know, how fucked am I?
The title itself is a recipe for disaster. Also this is a semi rant.
Yesterday I was informed that I will have the honour to implement the core functionality - which is an interface layer to use the driver of a very expensive hardware shit - of the software I’ve been working on as a frontend dev.
There are two possibilities for the language: C++ or C#. The one that was proposed/imposed is C#, which I know nothing of, while at least I have some hobbyist experience with C++; when asked if I could take some time to familiarise myself with C# I was basically laughed in the face, saying I will learn on the field and at least some of them have some experience with it.
Should I insist to go with C++, or is that an even worse idea in an already fucked up situation?
Have you used Java before? It's not a big leap from Java to C#, most of the concepts are the same. At least C# is a memory safe language, although I'm not sure if you're unfamiliar with the code base and languages if it really makes a difference which language you use here. Hopefully your coworkers can help hold your hand a bit here, this situation sucks.
Honestly I felt kinda similarly to you when it comes to Java and Microsoft Java aka C#, but I found I was able to code in it with not that much struggle.
Not sure if you know python, but I feel like objects in C# are similar to python objects. You have to use the new keyword when you initialize a object though for some reason. Also PascalCase is used everywhere for some reason.
One of the largest gotchas for me was the char type being unsigned.
I found Microsofts docs to be quite easy to work with honestly.