Re: Converting Visual C++ 6.0 application to Unicode
Hi David,
I don't think people "love" .NET for the sake of it being .NET. I think the
cooler tools and easier to program language has a lot to do with it. I
remember when VB first came out and we used to say that it allowed "bad
programmers to write more bad programmers quicker". Of course, we've come a
long ways, but I think the biggest hurt to C++ has not been the language
(although it is more difficult because it has more stuff). I think the
biggest problem is the other .NET languages get the cooler tools and
marketing hype. Look at how many MFC users still use VC 6.0 because of the
"tools". If MSFT doesn't do something about C++ tools keeping up with the
"Jones's" then MFC will probably die just because C++ will eventually go out
of fashion. The only thing that really could keep it going is momentum
(which the video points out). I think the decision to support better tools
and paradigm for doing native code is a huge step for Microsoft. I noticed
the guys would never say that .NET wasn't a good idea, but they did elude to
the fact that there is a huge niche for native code still.
I guess we'll wait and see what happens. I just wish they'd do a decent
resource editor (that could do higher resolution bitmaps for example) for
..NET OR MFC :o)
Tom
"David Ching" <dc@remove-this.dcsoft.com> wrote in message
news:_9lIh.1264$Qw.367@newssvr29.news.prodigy.net...
"Tom Serface" <tom.nospam@camaswood.com> wrote in message
news:FEC883D0-AB32-494D-8669-877150CC21E1@microsoft.com...
LOL, yes, it did my heart good to hear they were investing in it again.
I'm glad they're finding C++ programmers are passionate about the
language, and the quote about universities starting to back off Java and
going back to C++ just so students understand programming to the metal
also set off sympathetic vibrations in me. But still, the overriding
reason they are investing in MFC/C++ is because of the large ISV's with so
many lines of "legacy" code. They think if it were not for this, everyone
would want to do .NET just for the virtues of .NET. Here I somewhat take
issue. Although .NET is great on a number of levels, and I am
appreciating it the more I use it, they made it too much like VB, IMHO.
MFC has the advantage of being lower level for ultimate control and
debugging transparency, and supports much better encapsulation (not
everything is dumped into the form), there is a document/view framework,
all sorely lacking in .NET. Even if no legacy code existed, there would
still be a lot of us here who would probably choose MFC over .NET for a
number of reasons.
However, apparently we are in the minority. There are so many
corporate/enterprise developers who don't face the same
deployment/performance issues as the ISV crowd that they force us into the
minority.
-- David