C++ Team Blog

The latest in C++, Visual Studio, VS Code, and vcpkg from the MSFT C++ team

Fixing "Unsatisfied forward declaration" error from MIDL

Earlier this week I was helping a customer port some code from Visual Studio 2005 to a beta build of Orcas when we noticed an interesting change of behavior in how the new version of midl.exe (from the Windows Vista SDK release) was parsing code.  In case you run into the issue, here's a brief description, along with what we did to work ...

Fuzz Testing

Hello. My name is Pengpeng Wang, a new VC++ IDE QA member. I joined Microsoft and the VC++ IDE team just a little over four months ago. These four months have been quite an experience for me. It still seems like yesterday that I was struggling with my first .NET “hello world” assignment. My mentor, Alvin (yes the Alvin Chardon guy ...

Fixing COM Interface Redefinition Error

Hello my name is Steven Toscano and I work on the Visual C++ IDE team.  Recently we had a customer visit that exposed a common problem people are seeing when migrating to VS2005 from older versions of VS. You will encounter this problem if you have defined an interface with the same name as one of the interfaces introduced in the ...

Testing VCRedist

Hi everyone,My name is Rob Huyett, and I’m an SDET on the Visual C++ Libraries team.  I’ve been here at Microsoft for just a little over a year.  One of my recurring duties here is to test VCRedist in its various forms.VCRedist (just in case you aren’t already familiar with the term) refers to the process of ...

Update on the C++-0x Language Standard

Hello: the standards body that controls the C++ language (SC22/WG21) is in the process of revising the C++ language – this new revision of the C++ language, which is currently known as C++-0x, should be finished and approved by the end of the decade. As part of this process at the recent meeting of this committee (near Oxford, England) ...

MSDN article: “An Inside Look At The Next Generation Of Visual C++”.

HelloWe just wanted to mention that our own Tarek Madkour has recently written an MSDN article titled “An Inside Look At The Next Generation Of Visual C++”. Tarek is a Lead Program Manager on the Visual C++ team and  has been working on different areas of the Visual C++ IDE and compiler for the past six years. This ...

Channel 9: Documenting Development Technologies

This channel 9 interview features our very own Gordon Hogenson, the Visual C++ Documentation Manager who has recently released his first book “C++/CLI: The Visual C++ Language for .NET”. Gordon has worked as a manager, technical writer and test engineer for Visual C++, C# and other Microsoft products over the past 9 years. ...

Diagnosing Hidden ODR Violations in Visual C++ (and fixing LNK2022)

Hi, my name is Andy Rich, and I’m a tester on the front-end compiler.  Last time I posted here, I discussed several aspects of testing conformance in the C++ compiler, which is a large part of my job.  Another large part of what I do is diagnosing bugs in the compiler.  These come from a variety of sources, such as ...

Improving Our Servicing Experience

This is the second time I’ve experienced the “end game” of a product cycle in VC++. It is always a wonderful time: looking back at all the accomplishments, the satisfaction of seeing all the cool new features working smoothly together, the eagerness of finding and fixing every single bug! The pressure is still on while ...

Testing the Visual C++ IDE

Hello folks! Alvin Chardon, VC++ IDE QA member here.  I write to our readers today, not with a specific topic in mind, but with a few different thoughts collected during the Orcas product cycle. Hopefully, by the end of this narrative we can take that collection of ideas and form a coherent statement.  Don’t worry, I&rsquo...