This Old Code

I have been listening to the vc++ sessions from PDC and while  vs 10 sounds like it will finally function.  Having Intellesens that does not take your system down,  will a refreshing change of pace.  Yet essentially the core of new MFC improvements revolve around some tossed in eye candy.  Eye candy that will allow us to deceive our customers into believing we don’t suck and that we are a modern application, because we look cool.  The simple fact is we the MFC community doesn’t need UI eye candy.  If we care about UI there are third parties libraries(companies have been designing cutting edge UI with MFC long before .net was a glimmer in MS eye).  The UI is not the framework and the MFC framework pales in comparison to what .net(winforms/WPF) provides to its developers. So where are our performance gains?  Designing forms and dialogs is still a scene out of the early 90s.  Database support is pain, webservices and databinding are nightmares.  Sure we have document view architecture but what if I want something else? Then you end up fighting MFC at every turn.  This framework is like Frankenstein with what seems to be little thought put into design and usability.  It seems to me that the future is not MFC and its depressing that Microsoft is now ignoring c++ cli. 

In conclusion Vs 10 probably is the new 6, not because of the productivity 6 brought us.  But because this team still has their head in the sand and is developing crap for new applications which do nothing to help the MFC in the trench developers.  MS call me back when you bring back VC 6 class wizard.

PC26 Microsoft Visual Studio_ Building Applications with MFC

TL13 Microsoft Visual C++_ 10 Is the New 6