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by flipchart 4582 days ago
VC++ seems to have been given so little attention over the past years. I mean, even something like the new project wizard (which IIRC was due to be replaced when VS 2008 was around) is still untouched and completely different to the managed wizard. Maybe they've been too busy with C++11 feature implementation to actually improve the experience (and before that I imagine that .Net stole a lot of their resources). Of course now with C++14, they've got more work to do, so I'm not sure when we'll ever see significant improvements. It makes me sad, because being a C# dev, VS is very familiar, and to get a similar experience on the odd occasion I do write native code would be awesome!
4 comments
pjmlp 4582 days ago
For quite some time, the .NET field had the upper hand and VC++ was left with a small team mainly dedicated to bug fixing.

When the going native turnaround came about, they started staffing the compiler team again, but it does take years to recover what the .NET has enjoyed in the meantime.

On the other side, the going native also seems to affect .NET side, with AOT compilation for WP8 and the new JIT/NGEN compilers being developed for the next release.

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aaronbrethorst 4582 days ago
There was no value in moving to a new wizard for VC, so they didn't. To their credit, they did accept some restyling work for their wizards.

n.b. I worked on Visual Studio for four years and was the PM behind the managed wizard framework introduced in 2005 (which I've noticed is still around today).

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jasonjei 4582 days ago
Windows C++ development on Visual Studio is composed of a lot of tribal knowledge. I am surprised WTL isn't even an officially supported framework, while they leave their ATL and MFC kits rotting in neglect.
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pjmlp 4582 days ago
On the Visual Studio 2013 release it was communicated they are still looking to what might be the C++ GUI framework for desktop Windows, but it won't be MFC.

It is too old, based on C++ concepts that don't have place in a modern post C++11 world.

WTL was never an official framework.

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acc00 4582 days ago
I take a look at Visual Studio every couple of years. Looks like the Project Settings dialog is still the same from VC6(?) days, with confusing controls and tiny text fields.
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