Re: MFC updates and enhancements

In article news:<Wry3j.1425$Vq.725@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, David Ching
wrote:
To even mention Java and Delphi in the same paragraph is ludicrous.
We're not talking about some fringe niche tool here, we're talking
about the present and future of Windows desktop (and web)
development.

We're talking about development tools that are available for writing
applications to run on Windows.

An awful lot of people *do* use Java, so it can't be ignored -- you and
I may not like the language but it is far from being a nice tool. One
great incentive to use it is that there are some extremely high-quality
development tools available for Java -- things like refactoring editors
and code analysis tools, for example -- that have no equal in the C++
world. To a large part the relative simplicity of the Java language is
behind this: it's just much easier to write those tools for a language
with a simpler syntax.

Delphi is much more "niche" than Java, it's true, but it has quite a
large following and provides a good toolset and a nice working
environment. I know several developers who use Delphi (and/or C++
builder) rather than Visual Studio from choice. The VCL libraries have
a somewhat higher-level API than MFC -- which has its advantages and
its disadvantages -- and that suits some people better than others. At
present CodeGear's C++ compiler lags behind VC in standards compliance
and code quality, but it isn't bad and it is catching up.

Don't dismiss discussion of other tools as "ludicrous", Java and Delphi
are significant competitors to MS's tools and can't be ignored -- and
even those tools that really are niche products can teach us something
about the strengths and weaknesses of the tools we love.

In my domain, I'm increasingly asked about doing the project in C#,
the same kind of projects that used to be C++/MFC (and still are for
other clients).

I am seeing some of that -- and quite a lot of the work I used to do in
C++/MFC is now done in Java ... I'm also seeing Python or Python used
with C++ DLLs. Some people who have asked me about moving to C# were
doing so out of a misconception that C++ was being dropped, which I had
to correct.

Sure, C# has advantages for certain types of work, but it's by no means
the only game in town (and it never will be).

What does C have to do with it?

C has a lot to do with all of this, because it's the precursor in one
way or another of almost all the languages we use today, because it is
still more widely used that any other language that has been mentioned
here (except maybe COBOL), and because it is still available as an
alternative to the other languages we've discussed. It probably
shouldn't be anyone's language of choice for any kind of application on
Windows ... but for any work that has to be portable it needs to be
considered, and on some platforms it is still the ONLY serious choice.

Cheers,
Daniel.





.

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