Editorial Review
Microsoft Visual C++ is Microsoft's most powerful and versatile Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for writing and debugging software. Suitable for writing C and C++ code that will run in 32-bit Microsoft Windows environments, Visual C++ puts plenty of power in the developer's hands. As is the case with most development tools, your opinion of this one will be largely a function of the sort of work you do with it and your personal preferences.
Visual C++ does little to sugarcoat the very powerful (and thus frequently confusing, for the uninitiated) Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC) that it uses as its main interface with the Windows environment. This is good (in the sense that you don't have a "tool" getting in the way when you know what you want to do) and bad (in the sense that you have to surmount a considerable learning curve to avoid wasting time).
Visual C++ is not a Rapid Application Development (RAD) environment--that's the purpose Visual Basic serves in the Windows development scheme. Visual C++ is best suited to applications that must be able to manipulate relatively low-level aspects of the Windows environment. It's great for putting together games, multimedia applications, numerical-analysis programs, device drivers, and any other kind of program that requires carefully tuned performance or close control over system resources. For everyday database front ends and simple applications, Visual Basic probably will prove a better choice.
This latest version of Visual C++ includes improvements to its debugger, notably Edit and Continue. These commands allow you to fix little problems mid-debug, without having to go back and rebuild your program. The environment also includes Dynamic ClassView, which updates the contents of the ClassView tab nearly in real time. When you add members to classes, the monitors reflect those changes right away. Microsoft claims faster builds and better-optimized executables, too, and has changed the MFC to include support for new features of the Windows 2000 environment.
More controversially, the company has also changed its compiler to support a new keyword ("interface") that developers can use to associate their Visual C++ programs with Component Object Model (COM) objects. While this will save you the hassle of grinding out Interface Definition Language (IDL) code that correlates C++ classes with COM objects, it ties your code to Microsoft's compiler. Code that uses the new keyword won't compile elsewhere, unless other compiler makers adopt the new syntax. It's a productivity improvement, as long as you don't leave the Microsoft IDE.
Visual C++ 6.0 represents a refinement of its predecessors, with a handful of attractive new features added. It's a great environment if you understand how the MFC work. If not, you might want to look at developing in C/C++ with Borland C++ Builder or Metrowerks CodeWarrior, or at using Visual Basic to crank out relatively simple applications in a hurry. --David Wall
Cached date: AWS Called=true
