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Microsoft's Failing Support For C++

Thu, 2011-01-06 20:20 — jason

Microsoft recently posted a video on Channel 9 and their blogs describing the upcoming work they have planned for C++.

The abstract of the video tries to point out Microsoft's unfailing devotion to C++ development:

By chance, are you among those who think that Microsoft is leaving native development in general and the C++ programming language in particular behind? You better watch this interview to Ale Contenti, Principal Development Manager with the Windows C++ team at Microsoft.

The fascinating part is that comments on the blog site and on Channel 9 are filled with example after example of how Microsoft has failed to support the C++ community. There's virtually unanimous agreement that the best version of VC++ created was 6.0, released in 1998. Across more than 100 comments between the two sites only 1 or 2 people think that VC++ 2010 is better than the previous versions.

On the upside, there are official Microsoft representatives responding to the comments and assuring the users that they are there to listen to our concerns. It will be interesting to see if anything comes of this.

Comments

Sat, 2012-01-28 00:27 — Anonymous (not verified)

More than 100 Trollposts?

So more than 100 Trollposts?

Really: VS 6 was in its time a fairly good IDE. A good Compiler? Yes. A good C++ compiler? Come on! It was a abomination but don't call that a C++ compiler.

I had problems with VS 7 until Service Pack 1 came out but even without it was superior to its predecessor.

I've skipped VS 8 (2005) so I can't really tell anything about this version.

I still use VS 9 (2008) and it is really good.

The only thing that I don't like about VS 2010 is the IDE. It feels laggy ;-) But the compiler itself is very good and I think the 11 Version will have more C++11 support

Fri, 2012-02-03 07:11 — jason

The upcoming VC++11 is still

The upcoming VC++11 is still lacking several key features of C++11. To the point that it's nearly useless for serious C++11 development. Specifically, Variadic Templates and Initializer Lists. It's interesting however, because Microsoft is currently hosting a large C++ development conference. You'd think they would have prioritized more C++11 features. According to one of the speakers the lack of support is partially due to lack of tester time to write tests for all of the new features.

-Jason