C++ Team Blog
The latest in C++, Visual Studio, VS Code, and vcpkg from the MSFT C++ team
Latest posts
Faster C++ build cycle in VS 2017 with /Debug:fastlink
Continuing with our goal of further improving developer productivity with Visual Studio 2017 there have been major investments made for also improving incremental developer builds. The developer incremental build is one where a developer changes a single or multiple source files and builds. The time spent in these builds is almost equal to the time spent in linking the binaries. With Visual Studio 2015 we introduced a new linker switch ‘/debug:fastlink’. With ‘/debug:fastlink’ developers on average see an improvement of 2-4x in clean link times. So why is /debug:fastlink so much faster for link times? Well, with ...
Faster C++ solution load with VS 2017
The Visual C++ product has had projects ever since its inception. Visual C++ had its own IDE up through Visual Studio 6. Starting in Visual Studio .NET, C++ moved to a new IDE shared by Visual Basic, C#, C++, and other tools. This new IDE used COM everywhere and items in the Solution Explorer were based on IVsHierarchy. Much of the existing project system was kept intact but it was exposed through a new set of COM objects that implemented IVsHierarchy and other interfaces. In Visual Studio 2010, the underlying project/build system was changedfrom VCBuild to MSBuild. This is also when the file extension chan...
Visual Studio “15” Preview 5 Now Available
Visual Studio "15" Preview 5 is now available. Read the official announcement on the Visual Studio blog. Highlights for C++ developers include: For the complete list of everything in this release, along with some known issues, look at the Visual Studio “15” Preview 5 Release Notes page. The Preview 5 FAQ provides answers for common questions. As always, we welcome your feedback. Try the report a problem feature in the IDE to share feedback on Visual Studio and check out the developer community portal view. If you are not using the Visual Studio IDE, you can report issues using th...
Visual C++ Compiler Version
Official documentation on Predefined Macros in Visual C++ This blog was written by Gabriel Dos Reis and Mark Levine. Starting with VS “15” Preview 5, the Visual C++ Team is monotonically updating the value of the built-in preprocessor macro at every Visual C++ toolset update. Why? Thanks to the investments and progress that the Visual C++ Team has been making in the area of ISO C++ implementation conformance, we have been shipping new language features and introducing new conformance changes at a pace never seen before by our customers, in particular in updates to the Visual C++ toolset. As a result, it has...
CMake support in Visual Studio
⏱ Updated on October 5, 2017 with the latest functionality included with Visual Studio 2017 15.4 Visual Studio 2017 introduces built-in support for handling CMake projects. This makes it a lot simpler to develop C++ projects built with CMake without the need to generate VS projects and solutions from the command line. This post gives you an overview of the CMake support, how to easily get started and stay productive in Visual Studio. Getting started with CMake in Visual Studio To start, c...
C++ IntelliSense Improvements – Predictive IntelliSense & Filtering
IntelliSense is one of the most commonly used features in Visual Studio. With it, developers can write code more efficiently and learn more about their codebase at the same time. In a sense, IntelliSense is both a guide and a productivity feature. We understand the importance of having a powerful IntelliSense system which displays highly relevant results right when they are needed and which minimizes the time you need to spend thinking or typing as a developer. We have been collecting your feedback for C++ IntelliSense and are happy to announce two major improvements in Visual Studio 2017 RC: Predictive IntelliSe...
C++ compiler diagnostics improvements in VS “15” Preview 5
This post written by Andrew Marino and Andrew Pardoe Visual C++ in VS “15” Preview 5 now allows you to see where errors are in a line of code—the column number—as opposed to just showing the line number. As C++ has grown it’s increasingly useful to have a little more help finding your errors. Consider this somewhat contrived example: Traditionally Visual C++ would just tell you . With five different calls to on one line, it’s hard to figure out where your error is. Providing column numbers helps greatly: . Now at least the compiler has identified which call to is incorrect. But you can do more! You can n...
Bring your C++ codebase to Visual Studio with “Open Folder”
⏱ Updated on March 06, 2017 with the latest functionality in Visual Studio 2017 RTW Welcome to Visual Studio 2017! Starting with this release, Visual Studio supports opening folders containing source code without the need to create any solutions or projects. This makes it a lot simpler to get started with Visual Studio, even if your project is not an MSBuild-based project. The new functionality, "Open Folder", also offers a more natural source file management as well as access to the powerful code understanding, editing, building and debugging capabilities that Visual Studio already provides for MSBuild project...
Visual Studio “15” Preview Compilers Feedback
There is a new Connect Form for reporting issues with Visual Studio “15” Preview compilers. If you are not using the Visual Studio IDE, you can report issues using this form. If you are using the IDE, we prefer you use the Report-a-Problem feedback system. Thank you.