Shankar Vaidyanathan - VC++ IDE: Past, Present and Future

Tell me the reason that why c++ programmers should move from 2003 to 2005? As a matter of fact, there are still few people use VS 2005 or write C++/CLI code...So, I prefer VS 2003 or VS6...that's my choice.

kevinlee wrote:



Tell me the reason that why c++ programmers should move from 2003 to 2005? As a matter of fact, there are still few people use VS 2005 or write C++/CLI code...So, I prefer VS 2003 or VS6...that's my choice.

Even if you do not use C++/CLI, VC++ 2005 compiler is much better
than VC6 compiler. Language support is better, preprocessor is
better, IDE is richer... So far the only code I could not compile with
VC++ 2005 is some forward template declaration. But it's ok. I have heard some people would like to see this feature removed from the language (although unlikely).

kevinlee wrote:



Tell me the reason that why c++ programmers should move from 2003 to 2005? As a matter of fact, there are still few people use VS 2005 or write C++/CLI code...So, I prefer VS 2003 or VS6...that's my choice.

Just because .NET 2.0 was hyped doesn't mean VS is all managed now. VC++ is still good for unmanaged C++. I am the coder on a halflife2 mod and the mod is of course unmanaged. We used to use VS2003 ... and VS2005 is soooooo much nicer. Lot's faster, better intellisense, doesn't take forever to start up, etc.

Well... I don't mean that I hate VS2005. I know there are really a lot of improvements and exciting features...but anyway, i think for pure c++ programmers, that's really a difficult choice, to be pure c++ or CLI, I even don't know whether it's worthy to learn C++/CLI, how long will it last for? Just like managed c++?? Who knows.

AdityaG wrote:



kevinlee wrote: Tell me the reason that why c++ programmers should move from 2003 to 2005? As a matter of fact, there are still few people use VS 2005 or write C++/CLI code...So, I prefer VS 2003 or VS6...that's my choice.

Just because .NET 2.0 was hyped doesn't mean VS is all managed now. VC++ is still good for unmanaged C++. I am the coder on a halflife2 mod and the mod is of course unmanaged. We used to use VS2003 ... and VS2005 is soooooo much nicer. Lot's faster, better intellisense, doesn't take forever to start up, etc.

What mod do you work on?

Charles wrote:

VC++ 2005 is the latest and greatest incarnation of VC++... It does not require C++ developers to write CLI-based code, however it makes it a hell of of lot more logical and easy to do should your aplication require interoperation with managed libraries, which will most likely increase with future iterations of Windows...

Managed code is not a fad, it's the future, but umanaged code will not go away and will continue to play an important role in application development for the forseeable future...

It's all about using the right tools to get your job done. Sometimes you may need both managed and unmanaged in your application. VC++ 2005 makes it easy to do so. It does not in any way require that you do so. I hope this is clear.

Hit the nail right on the head there!

I've been doing a mid-sized project in C++/CLI and I think it's a really awesome and intuitive way to mix native code with managed code.  I view it as basically taking the C# language, renaming all of its features that would collide with C++ names, and shoving it into C++ in a relatively seamless manner.  Clearly the compiler folks have done a lot of work to make it happen so easily. 

I think the IDE support for C++/CLI is a little weak in comparison to C#'s support, but that's likely due to the greater complication in the C++ language and the fact that C++/CLI is not the preferred development environment of those who want a lot of tool support.

The GUI didn't matter in the past? Of course it matters! It slows down productitity to learn a new IDE. Now I have to use that little window in the corner for adding event handlers. I liked ClassWizard. I bought VisualAssist from WholeTomato to improve intellisense. Now I can't live without it. I will probably jump from VC6 to VS2005. Maybe I won't need the add in for VS2005.

Great stuff. VC2005 is simply the best C++ IDE in existance, I have to admit. I own VC6 and VC.NET 2003 Pro and recently wanted to ensure my own stl container runs with vc.net 2005expr ed aswell.

- Due to the runtime checks in the debug build (similiar to stlport debug mode) I found a really stupid bug (wells its only a private fun project)
- the whole source code intellisense thing is top notch (but it always was good)
- the debugger hoover over symbol and popup-with-expandable-content thing is very cool
- ide looks extremeley polished (at the begin I thought too polished), the colours are nice (classes and folders).

I dislike the whole msvcrt8 thing (manifest etc).

If I compare this software with eclipse ... just start eclipse on win32, navigate to Window> Show View  list and check out how many entries have the navigation (not ide keyboard) shortcut P -> Package Explorer, Problems, Progress and Properties all use the P key. Well, unfortunately I have only "p" key on my keyboard. And of course there is no default ide keyboard shortcut for Problems (Is nobody missing this?). Which means when my compilation fails, I cannot use Alt-W+V+P to access the problems, but I have to use Alt-W+V+(n x P), which is annoying. Come on, my build fails, give me a default keyboard shortcut to jump to the first error!

Weird...

kevinlee wrote:



please tell me the difference between vc++ and c#

For the IDE, can we have an option that disable Intellisence?

It makes my IDE really slow, I would rather disable it and use some 3rd patry tools.