(also known as '''MSVC''') is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) product engineered by Microsoft for the C , C++ , and C++/CLI Programming Language s. It has tools for Developing and Debugging C++ code, especially that is written for the Microsoft Windows API , the DirectX API, and the Microsoft .NET Framework.
Visual C++ has features such as Syntax Highlighting , IntelliSense (a coding autocompletion feature) and advanced debugging functionality. For example, it allows for remote debugging using a separate computer and allows debugging by stepping through code a line at a time. The "edit and continue" functionality allows changing the source code and rebuilding the program during program debugging, without restarting the debugged program.
The compile and build system feature, precompiled header files, "minimal rebuild" functionality and incremental link: these features significantly shorten turn-around time to edit, compile and link the program, especially for large software projects.
The predecessor to Visual C++ was called Microsoft C/C++ .
- , which included MFC 2.0, was the first version of Visual C++, released in 1992, available in both 16-bit and 32-bit versions.
- , which included MFC 2.5, added OLE 2.0 and ODBC support to MFC. It was 16-bit only and was the first version of Visual C++ that came only on CD-ROM .
- was a patched version of 1.5, but deserves its own entry since it is the last, and arguably most popular, development platform for )
- , which included MFC 3.0, was the first version to be 32-bit only. In many ways, this version was ahead of its time because Windows 95 , then codenamed "Chicago", was not released, and Windows NT had only a small market share. As a result, this release was almost a "lost generation". Updates available through subscription included version 2.1 and 2.2. Microsoft included and updated Visual C++ 1.5 as part of this release and both 16-bit and 32-bit version of the Control Development Kit (CDK) were included. Visual C++ 2.x also supported Win32s development.
- , which included MFC 4.0, was designed for Windows 95 and Windows NT. Updates available through subscription included Visual C++ 4.1 and Visual C++ 4.2, which no longer supported Win32s .
- , which included MFC 4.21, was a major upgrade from 4.2.
- , which included MFC 6.0, was released in 1998. The release was somewhat controversial since it did not include an expected update to MFC. Visual C++ 6.0 is still quite popular and often used to maintain legacy projects. There are however issues with this version under Windows XP, especially under the debugging mode (ex: the values of static variables do not display). The debugging issues can be solved with a patch called the "Visual C++ 6.0 Processor Pack" downloadable from http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/aa718349.aspx; curiously, this page stresses that ''Users must also be running Windows 98, Windows NT 4.0, or Windows 2000.''
- (known also as Visual C++ 7.0), which included MFC 7.0, was released in 2002 with support for link time code generation and debugging runtime checks, .NET 1.0 and Visual C# and managed C++ extensions for .NET. The new user interface used many of the hot keys and conventions of Visual Basic , which accounted from some of its unpopularity among C++ developers.
- (known also as Visual C++ 7.1), which included MFC 7.1, was released in 2003 along with .NET 1.1 and was a major upgrade to Visual C++ .NET 2002. It was considered a patch to Visual C++ .NET 2002 and shipped for minimal cost to owners of that version. This is the last version to support Windows 95 as a target.
- was used to develop for the Windows CE operating system. eMbedded Visual C++ was replaced as a separate development environment by Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 .
- (known also as Visual C++ 8.0), which included MFC 8.0, was released in November 2005. This version supports .NET 2.0 and dropped managed C++ for C++/CLI . It also introduced OpenMP . With Visual C++ 2005, Microsoft also introduced Team Foundation Server . It is currently the latest '''stable''' release.
- is in development and was previously known by the internal code name of ''Orcas''. Beta 2 was released in July 2007. The full release is scheduled for February 2008. In addition to full support for .NET 3.0, it will include many enhancements to C++ development including improved intellisense and updates to MFC.
There are four versions of Visual C++ available:
Visual C++ is included in Visual Studio.
Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Express is available as a free download at the MSDN site.
See Also: Visual C++ Express
This Microsoft Visual C++ (or Visual C++ 8.0) is available in two flavors: as a part of Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 , and as a standalone "Express Edition" product. Both should be available for MSDN subscribers and were released officially in October of 2005.
Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition is available from the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) web site as a free download. However, the Visual C++ 2005 SP1 Redistributables are not included and could not be downloaded from Microsoft.
As Microsoft says, "Once an application is rebuilt with Visual C++ 2005 Service Pack 1, it will need the Visual C++ 2005 Service Pack 1 version of the Visual C++ libraries during runtime."1 Thus, an executable compiled using default options (dynamic linking) in Visual C++ 2005 Express SP1 could not be deployed to PC's that do not have Visual C++ 2005 Express SP1 installed. This problem was solved in April 2007, when Visual C++ 2005 SP1 Redistributable Package became available on Microsoft's website.2
Visual Studio 2005 Standard and Professional editions have X64 compiler support, and Visual Studio 2005 Team System supports IA-64 and X64 . Before Visual C++ 2005 was released, programmers were supposed to get the Platform SDK if they wanted to write 64-bit programs. That included the 64-bit compilers and the 64-bit versions of the Visual C++ 6.0 libraries. If they wanted the 64-bit versions of the Visual C++ .NET 2003 libraries (which are no longer available), they were supposed to contact libs7164@microsoft.com.
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