After three years of GDScript and one week of C#, I get it now

I recently got obsessed with a new project idea and decided to try my hand at C# development in Godot. My programming experience and knowledge is exclusive to GDScript and some Python, but I am actively trying to become versatile enough to be successful in a CS Master's program (I work at a university and it will essentially cost nothing) and I figured C# would be a comfortable place to start with more "real" languages. I'm also aware the Godot C# community is kinda massive, which is awesome.

At first, I found certain things challenging, mostly coming down to weird syntax differences and differences in accessing the engine API (the GDScript API does a lot of hand-holding as it turns out, not that that is a bad thing). Fortunately strict typing was no issue for me because I am a stickler for it in GDScript. But then once I started to understand the workflow, things just.... became way easier.

The first thing that blew my mind was how remarkable Rider's built-in local, non-AI intellisense is at suggesting whole blocks of code that I would have largely been writing myself in any IDE with GDScript. I know this is largely because C# is vastly more globally used than GDScript, so there is far more precedence for its applications, but damn dude.

The other aspect that surprised me was how many tools I have at my disposal in C# that GDScript can really never use because of how it's tied to the engine API, like structs and native lists (which I am aware do have some parallels in GDScript, but they are usually heavier and slower).

The only thing I can point to as a very minor pain point is the fact that C# is inherently slower to iterate with because of the build process, but honestly I'm nowhere near the point that it even matters right now lol.

Thanks for listening, and thanks for being one of the best communities in development (game or otherwise!)!