Future of C++ and Windows Programming :: C++

Hi.

I posted a topic a few days ago about the future of COM. Overall, most responses implied that COM in general has and will become .NET legacy. The bottomline is Microsoft is dropping COM for .NET.

Microsoft will release Longhorn and I am sure they are working on other versions of their line of OS. According to several articles on the future of Windows development, .NET is taking over Windows.

http://www.codeproject.com/interview..._msdn_0103.asp
http://msdn.microsoft.com/chats/vstu...dio_121802.asp
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,642737,00.asp

What is the future of C++ programming in Windows? Microsoft can make C++ obsolete under Windows as they push .NET. I have no problem with .NET. I am just curious about C++ programming in Windows because, well, it is fun!

Thanks,
Kuphryn

C++ programming for Windows ?

Microsoft is a company that is replacing its own technology for their own new technology.

I would say we must wait for this race to stop ( or atleast slowdown)

As MS is frightened of Java and Linux , its making all such things as .NET.

And future of Microsoft world even is not sure. If linux takes over in Desktop market then Windows will be gone forever.

Who knows what will happen. We can't predict future.

We just have to wait and watch.

If you consider the entire domain of "programming on a windows machine", the .NET framework doesn't cover it all. Remember that .NET was designed for web services, although it's flexible enough for writting standalone apps.

Future versions of Windows will still have the Win32 API in "C-entry" DLL's (otherwise they wouldn't be backwards compatible).
Yes, MS is working towards a fully managed code version of the Win32 API, but guess what it will be calling under the hood :).

Quote:

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Host Guest_Robert_MS
Q: Can you clarify the distiction between the WinForm API and the future porting of Win32 to run as a managed API?

A: The "Windows Forms" API is essentially a set of interfaces that expose the existing Win32 functionality via managed code. In the future, you will see the API for developing applications on Windows will evolve into a fully managed API.

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I interpret "in the future" as "not in Longhorn". When you read things like "the .net framework will be integrated into the OS" - that's just a fancy way of saying the CLR and all it's functionality will be part of the OS (as appossed to running in user-space).

As for C and C++ on Windows - it will be around as long as Windows is around. Hell, COBOL is still around (if you catch my drift).

gg

Excellent points.

Kuphryn

Echo Codeplug.....

You can find sites on the web that devote resources and time to programming windows in assembler, and dont believe that there's much you can do with VC++ that they cant do with MASM and a set of includes (including COM and even activeX controls).

You can scaremonger about the future, but your better off honing your skills in the here and now where the technologies you study will be at hand, readilly accessible on other computers and fully documented/debugged...

I have spent some time learning COM stuff........and I dont regret learning any of it.........with this stuff I can use C++ to make activeX controls, connect to databases via ADO, automate M$ office and work with the scores of COM interfaces that windows exposes for its shell (and there's literally loads of this stuff - you just need to look at the SDK to see this).....