Re: Visual C++ wont autcomplete?
"Bo Persson" <bop@gmb.dk> wrote in message
news:5ibarmF3o3k67U1@mid.individual.net...
You don't get payed for you efforts, but for the result.
I am sure the engineers at Ford work really hard, but people buy Toyotas
anyway. Should I buy a Ford just because I feel sorry for the employees
there?
You should if it's those employees you're directly appealing to!
Here's just about how I see it:
One upon a time, we had VC 6, a good optimizer but with pre-standard C++
language. The IDE was ok, and I could buy C++ professional edition
separately.
So, I really wanted a more standards compliant compiler, perhaps a few
fixes in the optimizer. Please?
Four years later VS2002, the greatest improvement since sliced bread,
offered a new IDE (what?), about the same crappy compiler, but with
Managed Extensions (Yeah?).
Didn't ask for that!
Ok, get this great VS2003, now with a really decent C++ compiler, and more
Managed Extensions, and (wait!) you forgot the class wizard!
Another copule of years, and VS2005. About the same C++ compiler, but now
also C++/CLI (did I ask for that?!), C# etc, and no option to buy only
what you want. Professional Edition update, and select C++ only in the
install?!
Soon VS2008, improved Vista compatibility (did I ask for that?), STL for
C++/CLI (or that?), and not the old clazz wizard, and still not fixing the
last C++ incompatibilities (10 years or so after C++98). What about C++09
features?
And the managers put out a video saying, "We can't tell you anything right
now, but just wait a while and you will be surprised at what we will
deliver!".
I'll bet you didn't ask for Java either, but that is what drove MS to
prioritize .NET, and to divert their best resources to managed code, and to
write the IDE's optimized for managed code. The basic problem is in order
to survive Microsoft needs to have a better Java than Java, and they have
succeeded in that. They do not need the best C++ to survive. Given these
goals, I'm very pleased to see things like C++/CLI that emphasize C++ as
much as it is.
The thing that we as C++ people don't want to hear is they are not king of
the hill any longer. At the very least, we need to share the crown with the
managed world, and yes, that means compromising the toolset. Instead of
complaining about that, we should be worried that maybe in a few years, we
won't be king of anything and will be relegated to a niche market like
Fortran and Cobol have been. What can we do to ensure that won't happen?
Or should we care?
So you think it is time to stop complaining? :-)
Yeah, I think it's time to stop whining and start doing something
constructive, be that "complaining" in the right forums, or writing tools
that are now missing (while recognizing those tools like a VC6-like
ClassWizard are going to be niche products and not mainstream ones like it
would have been a decade ago).
If we only had a Toyota option, we probably would!
Yeah, that's the easy part. How hard is it to choose to buy the best in
class product? The hard part is making a product we'd like to buy! :-)
But the good news is that we have chosen an industry that lets us create our
own tools. That's why I don't have a lot of patience or respect for people
who write thesis on what is wrong with a current product when they are more
than capable of writing something better.
-- David