C++ Library Updated

The Visual C++ 2008 Feature Pack, now in beta, includes an update to the Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC) that makes it easier for developers to build applications that use the new Vista or Office 2007 user interfaces, along with support for Technical Report 1, a set of additions being added to the ISO standard C++ libraries. The update to these two native code C++ libraries illustrates the way that Microsoft is refocusing its C++ efforts on developers who continue to develop or maintain native code applications.

Updating MFC

Introduced in 1992, MFC quickly became a very popular application framework used by C++ developers to build Windows applications. Along with the introduction of Visual C++, Microsoft’s first Windows-based integrated development environment for C and C++ developers, MFC helped developers quickly create applications that incorporated features first introduced by Office, such as toolbars, Print Preview, and Object Linking and Embedding (OLE).

Subsequent releases of Visual C++, however, saw Microsoft put more focus on other technologies, including both native code libraries, such as the Active Template Library (ATL), and managed code libraries, such as the .NET Framework’s Windows Forms library.