I just joined this User Group today and I like to share some of my observation about this site. I found the forum of C++/CLI under utilised.
You can literally count the total number of messages posted on this forum for the first half year of 2007 with your fingers.
Many questions posted in the C++/CLI forum are related to the traditional native C++ rather than the newly proposed C++/CLI language.
One thing I am not used to is the date format is in the form of Month-Day-Year (the American way). This makes a date such as 12-05-2006 looks funny. Is this a date about May or December?? Can the editor or the Webmaster adjust the date format to coincide with the normal display format in Singapore??
Click on your nick on the top where you signed in to edit your profile. Click on Site Options and you can set the Date Format.
It is a valid observation and this is probably so because not many people actually use C++/CLI itself. And those who actually have are already proficient in it one way or another. I for one have used it several times to do interoping and core low level performance.
I gather you are not a Singaporean? :)
thank you for interacting, otherwise this place can be very boring and lifeless.
I tried to change the date format but the system was apparently not designed with this option.
About C++/CLI, this language is so new that very few people really use it. And the experience of picking it up can be really bad especially if you are trying to learn the language two years back. It was known as MC++ in those days. Most people would rather use C#, why bother C++/CLI. In fact, my feeling is that this language is intended as a migration tool to lure C++ programmer to slowly move over to C# eventually. MS did not have the intention to support the native C++ on their Visual Studio. They have invented C#, where is the need to support C++. But the fact remained that there is a pool of experienced C++ programmers out there. So C++/CLI is the interrim measure and bridging tool to move them over to C#.
I am a true blue Singaporean. I am kind of curious what prompted you to think otherwise? Is it the language used, no Singlish? Or is it my User ID? I can always use HanYu Pinyin for my Chinese name since I am bilingual. Anyway, glad to meet you and I hope more people can come in and share their views.
Cheers.
I think until the day Microsoft can totally eradicate WIN32 off the operating system and applications, and have them natively computing as object-oriented CLR, we will still have a sizeable market for WIN32/C++ development. Yes, it is shrinking, but I don't think it will shrink so fast.
C++ still remains the performance king (well, in some areas) and large degree of freedom with memory and pointer arithmetic, so those who need critical real-time systems, massive data processing are going to stick with it for some time.
For the bulk of business applications though, the cost of developer time is way more expensive than computational time, so cutting down development time and effort is paramount. That's what the "safer" .NET languages try to accomplish.
The melody of logic will always play out the truth. ~ Narumi Ayumu, Spiral
I see. Well, I can't help you with the date format there. That's about the only way I know how to change it. You'll have to wait for one of the administrators to do something about it.
The language itself is not new, it's just the extensions to the language. Let's get the record straight. MS does intend to support native C++ in Visual Studio, and has always been supporting it. Most, if not all C++ development done in Windows uses Visual Studio. The improvements on native C++ compiler complying to standards has improved three-folds or more with the 2005 release, after Herb Sutter joined the team.
C++/CLI is not an interim measure, but a way to interop between the managed and unmanaged environment, creating an extremely powerful language extension, provided if you know how to use it to its full extent. With both templates and generics available, the sky's the limit.
As icelava has mentioned, it is all about productivity nowadays in business applications, and not power. Very few people actually need the power of C++/CLI for their business applications.
Why I asked whether if you're Singaporean or not is because the market for C++/CLI developers in Singapore is next to nothing, and when there is one, they pay the developers quite a lot for this rare skill. Since you are a Singaporean, the next other deduction is that you are a student in Singapore. If you aren't, then you must be one of the rare white elks out there.
Icelava and I are about the few people here who have actually done C++/CLI (I for one have done a medium-sized project using it), and you won't see many other people who actually understands it.
triplez:Icelava and I are about the few people here who have actually done C++/CLI
correction. i have not done C++ before. my native API experience was WIN16 C ;-) owwww the horror..... i am more than happy to have forgotten all of that.
The extent of contact with C++/CLI was just long enough for me to peek at the MechCommander2 source code :-)
Haha. Then I guess I'm about the only person around there that actually have used C++/CLI in projects before.
Yeah, reminiscing the days of Win16. *shivers* How about COM v1 when it first came out? The horrors!