C++ Team Blog
The latest in C++, Visual Studio, VS Code, and vcpkg from the MSFT C++ team
Latest posts
C-Runtime Deployment: Why choose AppLocal?
There are three main ways to depend on and deploy the Visual C++ libraries and the Universal CRT: From a performance and maintainability standpoint, depending on the libraries DLLs and centrally deploying them is the preferable option: the centrally deployed DLLs can be “shared” by all of the programs that depend on them (reducing both disk space use and memory usage on end user machines) and they can be serviced by us (Microsoft) in the event of a security issue. However, we recognize that central deployment of the DLLs is not always a viable option. And rest assured: we are not planning o...
Update your Visual Studio Code C/C++ extension now!
Would like to thank all who have tried out the C/C++ extension in Visual Studio Code and have already provided rich feedback on their experiences, filed issues with us. Pairing with the Visual Studio Code 1.0 announcement we are also updating the C/C++ extension today in VSCode with the following improvements based upon the feedback that we have heard so far: Code Editing Debugging Update your extension now! If you already using the C/C++ extension, you can update your extension easily by using the ext update dropdown. This will display any available updates for your currently ...
Clang/C2: We need your advice!
The Visual C++ team has shipped three releases of Clang with Microsoft CodeGen (Clang/C2). We've got a solid pre-production compiler that passes all of our STL tests and compiles a bunch of code into native Windows binaries. We've about to move to the 3.8 release of clang. We're also working on getting x64-hosted tools up and running. Our Clang/C2 support in Visual Studio is turning a corner! We'd like to hear from you, our developer audience, about what we should tackle next. What's most important to you? If you'd like to talk directly with us about what matters to you with Clang/C2, please fill out this five...
Be sure to try out the C++ Quick Fixes extension!
Hello C++ World! Our C++ Quick Fixes extension has gotten some pretty good initial feedback since we released it a few months ago. I wanted take some time to make sure that you are 1. aware of its benefits 2. giving us feedback on current features, and 3. giving us feedback on what other “Quick Fixes” you’d like to see! The theme of the Quick Fixes extension is to provide additional features that help you address errors/squiggles in your code. Using the Extension To access the feature, hover over a red squiggle and look for a lightbulb, or use the default keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Dot (Ctrl+.). Note that fo...
Using C++ Coroutines to simplify async UWP code
The Universal Windows Platform (UWP) introduced many async APIs; there are now almost 1700 of them. In fact, the team switched every API that could take 50ms or more to complete to async mode. Coding with the async pattern is not an easy task, especially in C++ where you have to create a ppl task and use a continuation (.then) with some lambdas. In fact, in many cases writing the code itself is not so hard, but the readability is not good. C++ Coroutines can simplify your async code, and make the code easy to understand, write, and maintain. But rather than give you a 1000-word description, let's look at ...
Lightweight C++ Installation in Visual Studio “15”
Recently at the //build conference, we announced a preview of a new installation experience for Visual Studio that gives you a more focused subset of the tools you need, and minimizes the impact to your machine. In this new installer (which is separate from the full Visual Studio “15” Preview), we’re focusing on laying the groundwork to radically improve installation, making it faster for most developers, and making scenarios like running multiple builds side-by-side much smoother. Download the installer and try it out for yourself! The C++-only Experience The new installation experience delivers a focused “...
Visual C++ 2015 Update 2 Bug Fixes
Announcing the VC++ 2015 Migration Virtual Development Laboratory
The Visual C++ Team is pleased to announce the VC++ 2015 Migration Virtual Development Laboratory (Virtual DevLab) which will run from April 18th through September 30th of this year. A Virtual DevLab is a kind of remote assistance where Microsoft's Visual C++ Team will help you with questions and code inspection. Most of the time will be spent helping you port your C++ codebase to Visual Studio 2015, so please consider participating if you are looking to migrate to VS2015. The Virtual DevLab is free. For each Virtual DevLab, we will organize a series of video or audio calls with screen sharing in order for ...
Optimizing the Layout of Empty Base Classes in VS2015 Update 2
The C++ Standard has only a handful of requirements regarding how a class is laid out in memory, one of which is that the size of a most derived object shall have a non-zero size and shall occupy one or more bytes of storage. Because this requirement only extends to most derived objects, base class subobjects are not subjected to that constraint. Taking advantage of this liberty in the standard is commonly referred to as the Empty Base Class Optimization (EBCO), and results in reduced memory consumption, which can improve performance. The Visual C++ compiler has historically had limited support for EBCO; howev...